


A New Vantage

by Vivagrazia



Series: Changing Paths [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Feelings, Gen, Plot Fic, Romance Isn't The Focus, Skyeward is hate to love, Slow Burn, au season 1 finale, part one, season one personas, the rest is pretty hurt/comfort, they don't actually get together until sequel, this is sort of like a prequel, whole team fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-10 22:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 40,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4409951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vivagrazia/pseuds/Vivagrazia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU beginning in the season one finale. Ward beats May when they have their fight, starting the team on a whole new path.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ward Beats May

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Ward beats May, he has the chance to find a fleeing Skye.

 

Ow.

This is what Grant Ward thought, standing over the nearly motionless body of The Calvary before him.

He would liked to have said this fight went much smoother than he'd expected. But he'd be lying to himself. He’d wondered what a fight between May and himself would be like many times in the past, knowing that eventually it would probably come down to that between him and his former lover.

He knew she was good. But he knew the same thing about himself too, and frankly, he had age on his side.

So when May managed to haul him off of her, he was fairly shocked. And not pleasantly. This was mainly where the "ow" Grant was thinking of had been caused, because she used a wheel to fling a large metal bar up to his head, which when it hit was basically, well... ow.

And he'd been known to take a hit.

Even more shocked when she pulled a nail gun seemingly out of no where, and thank god that didn't connect with him, because he knew it would have hurt like hell.

He managed to dodge the nail gun well enough, swiftly grabbing a nearby wrench and hitting her upside the head, hard enough that she slumped lifelessly to the ground.

But she wasn't dead, and that was actually what was causing the problem.

He'd killed a lot of people. Ward knew that, he was pretty comfortable with the fact. Even Victoria Hand he'd had no problems with. But those were necessary under the orders he'd been issued. And though he’d had marks that he’d needed to be intimate to get the information, it had never come down to killing someone he'd slept with, even if he didn't have feeling for the person.

 _If Garrett were here right now, he would want her dead,_ he thought.

Grant raised the gun up to Melinda May.

_But he's not here. He didn't give you that order. He ordered you to find Skye._

He let his arm drop heavily. Finding Skye was the primary objective. If he spent anymore time here he may lose her.

Leaving the Calvary to her own chances of dying by concussion, he ran towards the elevator. He was fairly certain he knew where Skye was off to, based on the conversation she'd been having: the Incentive's program barracks.

He walked into the hallway, gun in hand, where the family of all the Hydra "employees" were being held.

He saw her before she noticed him. She was unlocking and looking through a couple different rooms. Kyle Zeller, the man in charge of the Cybertek station was behind her - bomb still wrapped around his chest -, and a woman behind him.

"What are you looking for?" asked Zeller, just as Skye opened the door and smiled.

“Our Ace in the hole," she answered, visibly relieved at finding the person inside. Ward realized who it was in a heartbeat.

Ward chuckled, making himself known to everyone in the hallway as their heads turned towards the noise. "Aw, did Skye make a little pun?" he mocked, stepping closer as she worriedly beckoned Ace out of the room to come stand behind her. "Or was that seriously the codename of the mission? I wouldn't put it past you people."

Skye scoffed. "Look who's talking,  _Short Bus,"_ she spat, but her face sobered from her quip quickly. "Where's May?"

"That's right Skye, no more 'weapon better than a bomb' to save you."

"Where's May?" she demanded louder, eyes narrowing.

She was wondering if he'd killed her. Well, if she already thought he was a monster, might as well let her imagination run wild.

"Well, if I had to have a hunch, I'd say she's exactly where I left her: lying on the ground."

Skye just continued to glare, but he noticed her chest go up just slightly as she breathed, trying to control her anger.

Ward grinned. "Alright Skye I'm going to make this real simple. Co-operate, and no one has to get hurt."

She shook her head. "That's not gonna happen."

"That's the only way it's going to happen if you want everyone in this room to make it out of here."

"Yeah? Forget about this?" Skye said, beckoning her head towards the other man's chest.

Ward laughed again, feeling pretty cynical. "We've gone over this Skye. You are not going to use that bomb."

Swallowing hard, Skye looked him right in the eyes. "I've thought over that moment a thousand times, you know," said Skye firmly, and Grant knew immediately what moment she was talking about. "And I know now I made the wrong decision. I should have let you die. One serial killer's life over god knows how many people Hydra will hurt from me giving you that hard drive."

He nodded, playing along. "Yeah, that probably would have been the smarter choice for you. Live and learn. And what we've learned is that you're willing to kill  _me_. Doesn't mean you'll blow up everyone here."

"You're right, I won't. Still, this bomb is kind of interesting though... Fitz designed it. Called it the One Way Street, and it’s not just a catchy name," Skye told him, turning around and quickly unzipping the backpack around the man's chest.

Ward only had a moment to react before she was throwing the thing at him, taking cover behind a somewhat random desk in the middle of the hallways as he heard it clatter to the ground.

"God damn it," he muttered. As he covered his head to prepare for the blast, he heard Skye directing the others towards the stairwell. He thought the bomb would have gone off by now, thinking she would trigger the remote immediately, but perhaps she was waiting until they cleared the stairs.

He waited five seconds. Ten. At fifteen he made the call that she had been bluffing. The rookie still didn't have the guts to pull the trigger.

It was only when he walked out of his cover that he nearly kicked himself and ground his teeth together in frustration. There was definitely no bomb, but in its absence a small Avenger doll.

Ward tried to stifle the anger building up at his own stupidity and ran towards the stairs, focusing on finding Skye.

The incentive program's barracks were in the very middle of the building, floor eight of fifteen, made clear by the large yellow number plastered on the wall just inside the stairwell. He jogged down just a few of the concrete steps when he heard her voice.

"C'mon, c'mon! We have to keep moving," Skye's attempted whisper echoed through the area.

This stopped Ward dead in his tracks because her voice wasn't coming from below him, but above. Why would she go up? Maybe she had an extraction set up on the rooftop. He glanced skyward where there was no sign of her, but he couldn't see most of the upper levels. It didn't matter. She was up, so he went up.

Despite his running, and being in good enough shape to keep up the pace, it took Ward a few moments to get to the top, which (unfortunately) gave his mind a few moments to run as well.

He did like Skye. He openly admitted it to her just a few minutes ago. He openly admitted she was a  _weakness_. But at this moment all his feeling towards her were fueled by anger, and determination to finish the order he'd been given. In the end, that's all this really was. Another mission. And like every other one, he was going to complete it.

She must have been slacking on her resistance training since he stopped being her SO, because as he rounded the final flight of stairs she was only just heading out of the door to the roof.

"Skye, stop!" he shouted, raising his gun. Somewhat surprisingly, she did stop, turning to leer at him while the door behind her slowly creaked shut.

"Nice trick," Ward told her, taking a few generous steps forward.

Skye smiled. "Wow, complimented by the player himself; I must be getting  _good!_ "

"Enough with the games. It's time to go." Ward was becoming more and more anxious, as it entered his mind that their extraction could be there at any moment. Even if he had Skye, he needed to get to Ace before then.

"Really Ward? You're going to spout some bullshit about how your feelings for me are real, then cart me off to your precious Garrett, who, if you haven't noticed, is completely insane!" she shouted angrily, but reined in her voice before she spat her next sentence. "I bet you didn't even bother to ask what they want me for."

He had asked. He just hadn't gotten much of an answer.

"They want you because you're special, Skye."

Skye scoffed, her face radiating what seemed to be an endless amount of disbelief.

"Do you even have any original thoughts?" She shook her head, this time with an air of disappointment. "I guess you really do belong with Hydra. I've never known anyone to follow orders blindly better than a _Nazi_."

"That's it." Ward lunged at her, pocketing his gun as he gripped her upper arm. Her hands had shot out to try to get the roof door open, but his hold on her had been sudden and was too tight. "Are you just trying to piss me off? Because that's all you're doing." He grabbed a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket, twisting her arms behind her just a little too roughly. Yep, he was definitely pissed.

He shouldn't have even tried talking to her; she was never going to come of her own will. She was just mouthing off to make him angry like some petulant child. She didn't understand anything.

He quickly frisked her, finding only her iPhone and walkie in her back pockets.

"Where's your gun?" he asked her, but she just stared ahead. "Skye!"

She winced at the shout so close to her ear, taking a beat to recompose before answering. "Well  _I_ don't have it, obviously..."

In her own sarcastic way, that probably meant she'd given it to that Zeller, because she definitely wouldn't give a firearm to a little boy.

Ward took out his own gun, expecting to be met with another one once he went out on the roof. He pulled Skye along as he walked out the door.

The roof was completely flat, save for a few heating vents. But the main point was that there was nowhere to hide, even for a small child.

"Where are they?" Ward demanded, shaking Skye's arm. "I know there was no extraction out here yet, I'd have heard the plane.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Skye said, speaking slowly, as if he was a child. "There's no extraction. There's no SHIELD! You shut it down, remember?"

"Then why the hell did you climb the stairs instead of trying to get out of the building?"

"Oh, I dunno, I thought maybe my 0-8-4 thing would kick in. Maybe I can fly." She shrugged. "Who knows? Well, I guess you might. You did say you learned things about me. I could have asked you, but you were a bit busy handling things with the Hulk, huh?"

Jesus Christ, this girl had lip; and Ward had had it up to here with her sarcasm. Hard to believe he'd ever found it one of her endearing traits.

Actually, he'd expected her to be a little more glum when he finally cornered her. Maybe fight back a bit more... physically.  _Definitely_  less talkative.

Unless...

"You're stalling."

A smug smile made its way up the corner of her mouth.

"Damn straight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this about a year ago... hoping to fix some stuff up as I post it here!
> 
> So, I tagged it as Skye/Ward and Fitz/Simmons because though they don't officially get together in this story, there are elements of chemistry and obvious shipping between them. (And it miiiight be the endgame for them to get together in one of the sequels ;) )


	2. Coulson Hasn't a Clue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We check in on Fury, Coulson, Deathlok and Garrett. Meanwhile, Grant has a rough time with prisoner Skye on his hands.

**Chapter Two**

The look on Ward's face alone would almost have been worth getting captured. Skye might have been his prisoner, but in this moment, she felt empowered. As though she, trussed in shackles, somehow had the upper hand.

"Oh I'm sorry; can you not see from having the wool pulled over your eyes  _twice_?"

The irritated man was visibly grinding his teeth. "This place is full of Hydra soldiers. Ace would have never made it off the compound."

"Centipede, actually. And not anymore. Default directive, I have them all crawling back to Garrett. Guess you missed that part," she said cheekily. "I'll bet they're all gone by now."

"We'll see about that."

Ward grabbed her arm roughly and began hauling her off the roof, causing the handcuffs to scrape against her wrists. The harsh action somewhat reminded her that she was, in fact, in a hell of a lot of trouble.

She didn't know this Ward at all; what he would do. She knew BUS Ward, her Ward.

 _Who doesn't even exist,_ she reminded herself for the umpteenth time. She knew and had known that, it was just all too easy for her mind to forget they were the same person. Stupid, wishful-thinking mind.

But then this Ward, the real Ward... _"Maybe I'll just take what I want, wake up something inside you,"_ he had said. Skye sincerely wished he hadn't meant what she’d believed it had, but if she were honest with herself, that hope was probably in vain. Did she really need anymore proof what side he was on, what terrible things he was capable of?

Carting her around like luggage was only the _current_ proof.

Of course, this was a pile of thoughts for later. Well, maybe not, but she was a procrastinator at heart (never so much as with her feelings) and right now she wanted to savor tricking this bastard twice, plus getting Ace to safety. Hopefully. At the very least, she gave the kid his best chance.

Ward must have decided the elevator was more worth it than the stairs, as he took the time to cross floor fifteen to get to it.

Despite the fact that there was nowhere to go in the small space, Ward kept his hand firmly on Skye's shoulder. She almost wished that lame elevator music had been playing; at least it would make the currently dismal scene somewhat comical.

Ward began jogging around the instant they exited the building, searching, with Skye in tow. Skye paid little attention as he hulled her, more in her own head. Letting her mind wander.

They were  _all_  in trouble, the whole team. But Jemma and Leo...

No. Skye couldn't even allow herself to think about FitzSimmons, she knew she'd lose it. And there was no way in hell she was going to let Ward see her cry. Her only hope was that Garrett had been lying to rile her up.

She snapped back into the moment when Ward stopped moving momentarily to press his fingers to his ear, activating the comm.

"Sir, we have a problem."

"Fury was teaching us something you didn't want to hear, John, because you only think about yourself. That's the difference between your side and our side, and why we're always going to win."

Of course, Coulson had no idea if he was going to win. At the moment it seemed everything was riding on May and Skye getting Ace out. Phil hadn’t been aware Garrett was going to be so immensely powerful, and honestly? It scared him.

But it still sounded good.

"What lesson, Phil?” asked Garrett. “Please, enlighten me."

Coulson's mind wandered back to the first mission Skye had ever been there for. The first time they’d been a team.

"One person doesn't usually have the whole solution. But if one hundred people each work out one percent, you can unlock a world of possibilities."

Garrett seemed to consider this for a moment, but the manic smile still never left his face.

"Nice sentiment Phil, but I don't need a world of possibilities. I have all the answers in my head, and the world is only holding me back."

Coulson nodded. "Ok, I see we're now definitely past any semblance of sanity."

"I'd say he missed that exit a few miles back," scoffed Fury.

Garrett put a hand to his ear.

"You know this really has been such an eye opening conversation.” He chuckled. “Or perhaps, it could have been. If only my eyes weren't already able to see all of creation, and you actually had the ability to open your eye, Nick,” he said, causing Coulson’s blood to boil from the jab at his Director. “But I've got to stop and have a quick chat with my boy. You know, the one you thought was once a valued member of your little _family._ Deathlok, keep an eye on them for me, would you?"

Garrett walked away, mumbling some sort of question into the comm unit.

"Mike, you have to let us leave," pleaded Coulson. Peterson's gun was raised and pointed, but he obviously avoided looking either of them in the eyes. "Our agents got everyone out of the Cybertek facility, no one is watching you!"

Deathlok stared up at him, his red eye dimming as he moved. "Can you guarantee my son's safety?"

Coulson pursed his lips together. "May and Skye are looking into it. They cleared out the employees, so it's only a matter of time-"

"Do you think I want to do this? Do you think I want to do these things, be a monster? I'm doing it for my boy. And until I know he's ok, all I have are these orders."

"Look, I understand the importance of family," said Fury, taking a step forward holding his hands out in a surrendering gesture. "Think of all the families out there who are going to be hurt if that madman goes any further! You've heard him talk; you've  _got_  to know he's gone off the deep end."

"I do. And I'm sorry, but I can't stop him."

"No, I'm sorry."

Fury whipped the gun out of his back pocket fast and fired it even faster. It was a small, different than a normal gun. Of course Fury wouldn't shoot a normal gun at Deathlok, it would be pointless.

As the bullet made it's way towards Deathlok, Coulson saw him watch it coming. And he hesitated. Whether it was intentional or not, a momentary lapse in wanting to help them that overpowered his "everything for Ace" attitude, it was enough. And the shot ran straight into his head.

A surge of electricity cackled around him, causing Peterson to convulse in place for a moment before slumping into unconsciousness. He eerily remained on two feet, the metallic leg keeping him in still and standing.

Coulson inhaled a deep breath. "Is he...?"

"Nope, should just be out," said Fury in a matter of fact tone, throwing the weapon aside.

"Neat."

"I would have used it on Garrett, but this was specially made to conduct to the metal inside the body. Wouldn't have worked on him."

"Actually he did have some similar work done, so it might have," Coulson pointed out, shrugging.

"Well damn. These are the type of things we need to share, Coulson!"

"I really wouldn't be the one talking about unshared secrets here,  _sir!_ "

Fury sighed with exasperation. "Look, I get that you're upset but that conversation needs to be held later. Because right now, I think I'd like to be the hell out of here before he wakes up. Damn thing only had one charge. "

"Understood."

They were heading towards the door when Coulson heard the blast, and he saw a sight he'd hope to never see: the seemingly indestructible former Director of SHIELD was lying on the floor. Fury had been taken down.

"I can't let you leave Phil! We have so much to learn about each other." That voice was getting  _incredibly_  grating on the nerves. "Remind me to thank our SO when he gets up. Deathlok needed a nap anyway."

 _So he's alive_ , thought a very relieved Coulson as he looked over at Fury, now noticing the blue telltale marks of the ICER forming on his face.

A second later, he felt them come forth on his own as the icy chill crept up his spine. He heard Garrett saying something about possibly "picking someone up", but it was hard enough to even realize that his body had hit the ground, let alone the other man speaking.

Coulson felt only cold, until he felt nothing.

"Sir, we have a problem."

There was a pause, but eventually Garrett answered.

"What's wrong, son? Getting the Miss Hacker-Princess proving too difficult for you?"

"No, I have her, it's just-"

"Oh, well that is good to hear! I was almost afraid she manipulated you. She's a sweet talker, I bet."

"She's not the problem," insisted Ward, looking down at Skye who had out of the blue bucked her body in an attempt to get away. He merely increased his hold on her. _Trying to be the problem, but not the problem._  "It's Deathlok's kid, John. Ace, he got out."

Ward waited to be scolded on how incompetent he was as Garrett did have strange ways of motivation. But instead, he laughed. Cheerfully. "Oh, that's not a problem! Just a momentary hiccup," he said. "Because, I'm assuming, you'll get him back?"

"I'm trying. But there's too much square footage for one person to cover, especially with the cargo I have. And I have no idea where the rest of her team is. They may have gotten to him already."

"I thought you could handle this Ward..." Garrett sighed. "But it's no matter. I'll send Deathlok to retrieve the girl while you look for the kid," he said, and Ward could almost hear the smile on his face. It was unnerving. Their plan, well, _his_ plan, was unraveling by the second and he was acting like it was nothing.

Ward shook his head through reflex, even though Garrett couldn't see the motion. "But Skye knows Ace is gone, and I wouldn't think we'd want Deathlok to get this information."

"Then knock the kid out! She won't be saying anything then."

"I don't have an ICER."

Garrett grunted shortly. Ward could tell he was starting to lose his clearly reined in patience, reminding him of his old, pre-miracle drug self.

"Let me help you out here. Find a blunt object… and hit her hard on the head! Time is of the essence here, son."

"I thought Raina wanted her uninjured."

A pause.

"Well, I do suppose that's right. She could be a major player in the master plan, given her background..." he mused, his wording making Ward second guess the man’s sanity again. Maybe Skye had been right. Maybe his SO was deteriorating. "Fine. I'll come search for the kid. But please, feel free to keep looking until I get there.

"Understood."

"And Ward? Make sure you keep your feelings for your little _rookie_ in check. I doubt you'd usually question orders for something Raina wanted."

The comm clicked off. Ward's stare immediately drifted to the girl attached to the arm he'd been keeping hold of. Her eyes held more panic and caution than they did even a few minutes ago, making Grant figure she'd picked up on some of the conversation as he read her like an open book.

Skye was afraid he would hurt her.

Seeing no point in telling her otherwise –it wasn’t like she’d believe him- he began dragging her along to search some more.

'Oh, just give it up!" Skye whined a few minutes later, which was obviously enough time for her to gain her confidence back. "This place is too big for one person to find someone, especially if you insist on lugging me around."

Ward whipped his head to face her and was ready to lash out, but the static from Skye's walkie drew his attention.

"Agent Skye, do you copy? Come in, Agent Skye." There was a pause, Ward took the walkie to his ear to listen. Triplett's voice. "I just wanted to let you know that we got him. We got Ace."

Skye smirked and opened her mouth, when Ward pointed a near scolding finger in her face.

"Do not. _Speak_ ," he spat, his voice so dangerous that Skye closed her mouth with her ready-made remark.

More static before the walkie clicked on again. "And we're go for Fall Out Boy."

The static stopped completely, signaling the transition had ended. Ward jostled Skye’s arm to gain her attention.

"What is that, Fall Out Boy, what does it mean?"

Skye cocked her head to the side. "I'm sorry, am I allowed to talk now?"

It took almost all his restraint not to hit her. Or gag her. Prove he was the one running things. In any other uncooperative prisoner situation, he would have. He was the one in charge. He was a specialist, trained to do what needed to be done.

But he didn’t want to do that. Not to Skye. If for no other reason than knowing she didn’t deserve it.

Instead he took a deep breath. He released the hold on her arm to gently place his hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eyes so he was on her level, ready to talk things out with her.

That's when she kneed him.

Oh,  _right_ there.

He let go of her then, back caving farther forward as she ran out of his reach. Ward noticed, but was too preoccupied to try and grab her again.  _Much_  too preoccupied.

Still, it only took a few moments for him to regain his composure. He saw Skye not too far ahead as she jogged awkwardly with her hands behind her back. Ward went to follow her.

He barely made it three feet before the blast hit, sending him spiraling towards the ground as the wave of heat pushed him into the harsh concrete.

The bomb went off, just like Coulson had asked. Whether the man made it out or not he wanted the place to go up in flames, and Trip had no intentions of not getting the job done.

He’d tried to give Skye a warning. After getting May out of the building - would have been helpful if the woman would have woken up, but she wasn't too heavy - Skye would have been his next priority. That is, if it hadn’t specifically asked him not to try to get her.

" _I'm sending Ace out with two others_ ," she'd said through the walkie.  _"Guy's Hydra, but he should be ok now that they're not in the Incentive's program. May's in the building somewhere but Ward got to her and... I don't know how she is."_

" _What about you?" h_ _e'd asked._

" _I'm going to stay here and throw Ward off of Ace's trail. So I'll probably be compromised._ Don't  _try to get me; Ace's safety is more important."_

_That had not sounded good. Girl was smart, and Trip knew that, but this was plain stupid. Brave, but stupid._

" _Skye, this is a bad idea. You're not putting yourself at risk, you are giving yourself up!"_

_The pause was longer that time._

" _I gotta go. Take care of Ace."_

So he made sure to walkie in and tell them that Ace was safe. To ease Skye's worrying, but mostly in attempt to stop Ward's searching. He had to have been listening to Skye’s comm.

Triplett just wished that what he had said were true. But if truth were to be told, Ace had been nowhere to be found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention this was the first AoS fic I wrote? Because it was. I'm trying to fix bad writing but there's a lot and... well, I don't want to spend my life on proofreading haha. Still hope you enjoy though!
> 
> Comments make my day. Thank you guys so so much for the first two!


	3. Skye Feels Like a Turtle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye runs into some trouble after a bomb goes off.

Skye wanted things.

Skye wanted her team to be ok, safe and sound back at the BUS, preferably. She wanted this place to burn to the ground. She definitely wanted her former SO to stop trying to kidnap her.

And she really, _really_ wanted to stop rolling around on the ground like a turtle stuck on its back.

Ok, so she wasn't exactly that bad. But the force from the explosion had hit her pretty hard and with no hands to break her fall, it wasn't exactly the most controlled experience.

Her head had impacted with the concrete, causing her vision and thoughts in general to be pretty muffled for a moment there. The handcuffs forcing her arms behind herself kept her from properly sitting up.

Hence, the turtle analogy.

But, turtle-like or not, she did get up.

Freezing for a moment to take in her surroundings, she found that the entire Cybertek building was no more. It was just... an incredibly hot bonfire.

Fall Out Boy had been her codename idea. It wasn't even that she liked the band that much, but FitzSimmons had been singing "light em up up up..." obsessively so much before the whole Hydra ordeal, it was in Skye's head ninety percent of the time as well. She couldn't help but give them the tribute.

 _Not FitzSimmons thoughts again. Not the time to think about that_ brain; _time to think about getting out of here!_

Near the building, fairly close to where she and Ward had been standing, there was an unmoving figure sprawled on the ground.

She gasped a deep breath, for some reason hoping that the body wasn't going to be still forever. It was a weird thought, because she hadn't been lying to Ward before. If she were faced with that moment with him and Deathlok on the BUS over again, he'd be dead.

Her mind went to running away for a solid second, but in the end she decided it might be better to get to her walkie Ward had taken. Knowing if Trip was still around rather than guessing where he was would be a great help. But she prayed Ward stayed unconscious... or even the other thing.

It wasn't too far out of her way, as she hadn't made it very far before the blast hit. She turned him over with her foot to find that he was just unconscious, and not in fact _the other thing_. Not that whether Ward was alive or not was the issue at the moment.

The issue was her damn hands.

"Stupid Ward, stupid Hydra... damn stupid handcuffs!" she mumbled, shifting through Ward's clothes with her bound hands, not able to see where they were grabbing. Maybe she would have been better off aimlessly wandering.

But she found the walkie eventually, crouching down she activated it with her foot.

"Trip! Where are you?" she asked frantically, ever aware that Ward might wake up at any moment. Skye was very much relived that her friend answered immediately.

"I got your twenty, Skye. I'm fifty one to you right now."

Field agent lingo, and it meant he was headed her way. Triplett was close. Maybe she could get out of this.

Skye barely finished her sigh of relief when hands grabbed her shoulders hard enough to bruise, spinning her body around to face them. But the face staring at her wasn't Ward.

It was Garrett.

And Garrett's staring face was kind of terrifying. She could see the madman so clearly behind his eyes.

Literally behind his eyes though, as in running up behind him, were a bunch of Centipede soldiers.

And Skye knew wasn't getting out of this.

She pressed down on the walkie's button again with her foot.

"There's too many soldiers now, just get ou-"

_Smash!_

The walkie was in tiny pieces from a single stomp of Garrett's foot. Skye gulped, having a hard time taking her eyes off the sight to look at him, even as he began lifting her into the air before him.  _Literally_  lifting her; his hands gripped on either side of her shoulders as he brought them eye to eye. Like she was in _The Terminator_ or something!

Well, who was she kidding? Her life was getting way weirder than some Hollywood movie.

"My god," he said, and she could feel his eyes scanning her. "You are by far the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen!"

Skye met his wide, insane eyes with her own personal glare. "Wonderful. Crazy murderer, super powers,  _and_ creepy? Congratulations, you've just officially qualified as a super villain!"

Then he laughed in her face; the disturbing guffaws making her want to add "maniacal laugh" to her checklist.

"Not your outer beauty, Skye. Though, you have that too. I can see why my boy likes you. But what's on the inside... you are something more fantastic than I could have imagined!" he said with a laugh. "And what's greater, what runs inside you is connected to the inside of me."

"Well, that's... ew."

Skye abruptly drew her head back and careened her forehead onto his with as much force as she could muster, hoping to shock him enough that he'd drop her.

Didn't even flinch.

"Ow," she muttered, eyes squeezed shut and really wishing her hands were free to rub her sore head.

Garrett set her unsteadily to her feet right next to the still unmoving Ward. She’d known that was going to hurt, it had been a head-butt after all, but shouldn't it have hurt him too? At least a little?

Garrett was laughing at her. "That was real cute Skye, but I would advise not doing it again. I'd hate to have to hurt such a fine, young recruit with so much potential."

"If you think I'd do anything for Hydra you're out of your mind," she spat.

"Well, I am out of my mind. I can see so much more than what my mind was limited to before!" he preached at her. Somewhat randomly, it seemed to Skye. Still, he regained focus fast enough. "But I'm going to give you the same choice I gave your little engineering friend. You're either going to work for us, or you're going to work for us while under a great deal of pain. If only your friend had given the obviously better answer; he may still be alive." he said simply with shrug, making Skye's blood boil. "So, what's yours?"

Skye glared again.

Then she spit a pretty good chunk of saliva at him, right in between the eyes.

"You do not get to talk about Fitz, ever!" Tears welled in her own eyes as she shook her head in disbelief. "He was one of the bravest men I knew, and you killed him! You killed them!" Skye screeched, and in that moment she really believed he'd been telling the truth about their death. It was written on the maniac's face.

He was _glad_ to have been the one to give her the news.

Garrett cleaned off his face gently with his hand, ignoring Skye's outburst. "Well, I guess we can see what choice you made. Your pain will have to be something other than physical though, considering Raina wants you in one piece. I do too, of course." He leaned in close to her and wiped away a tear from her cheek, making her feel disgustingly vulnerable. "But you are going to pay for that," he sang, in a voice far too cheery for what he was insinuating.

Skye suddenly glanced to either side of herself as she felt two Centipede soldiers grab her arms, pulling her away from Garrett.

"Oh, and by the way Skye," Garrett called after her. "I wasn't the one who killed your friends. That honor goes to Ward."

Skye's mouth gaped open in shock, the overwhelming wave of grief and rage hitting her hard. She went near limp as the soldiers dragged her off to wherever she was going to do whatever they were going to do to her. It didn't even matter now. Her friends were really gone.

And  _he_  had done it.

She noticed Ward stirring on the ground from the corner of her eye as they walked away and Skye had never felt more resolve than she did in that moment.

Grant Ward was going to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do love comments if you have anything to say!


	4. Triplett Gets in a Car Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trip has to deal with some Centipede soldiers.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it..."

Triplett stared down the hill, at a perfect vantage point to see them dragging Skye away. She’d been right; there were  _way_  too many soldiers for him to consider retrieving her. Not that it stopped his mind.

But he also had the knocked out Calvary in the front seat of his SUV.

And of course the other two he'd found, currently in the back seat.

The man and woman Trip had found unconscious near the building. He figured out from the I.D. badge inside the man's jacket that it had been the guy Skye'd told him about and his girl. But Mike's kid was nowhere to be seen.

Still, May was the current person causing him worry. Not to mention all the super soldier agents that could be after him any moment. But that woman’s head had been bleeding profusely when Trip had found her and she _still_ wouldn't wake up. She needed the hospital bad.

Howling Commando tools were out. He needed to get the people he had away from here. He came to this decision in the nick of time it seemed, as Garrett began pointing to his men and gesturing wildly. Then four of them headed into two vehicles.

"Shit."

With a grunt of frustration, he got into the SUV parked just a few feet away and began driving away from the burning compound. Quickly.

Where to? It was hard to say. Hospital was probably what these people needed as he had no clue what was wrong with the couple. May needed medical attention, for sure.

It was then that he realized there really was no other option.

"Hospital it is," he said to himself, pressing hard on the gas.

Despite the increased speed, a van seemed to materialize out of nowhere before him. It flew passed his car in a diagonal direction, only to turn around and be right on his tail. Another SUV joined closely behind it.

"It'd be really nice if you guys could back _off_!" Trip shouted, slamming onto the brake, causing the SUV to rear end the Hydra vehicle. It bounced generously backwards with a domino effect into the other car.

Trip took this moment to thank himself for remembering to secure all the unconscious people with seat belts, though May's head still lolled around a decent amount when the car hit.

He watched as the Centipede soldier on the passenger side of the vehicle Trip had hit walked out, making his way towards his SUV. The car was armored, but it had taken more hits than Trip was comfortable with for a super-soldier to be heading towards him.

When the soldier got too close Antoine abruptly backed into him, causing Triplett to lose view of the soldier in his back mirror as he was swept to the ground.

"Definitely about time to get out of here..." he mumbled, putting the car back into drive. But when he pressed the gas, the car didn't move. Oh it jerked, and he could hear the wheels spinning, but it was not moving.

He strained to see out the window to locate the problem.

The Centipede soldier he'd just run over was holding the car from the ground, keeping it in place as the wheels desperately whirred.

"Ain't bugs supposed to die when you squish ‘em?"

Mind rapidly going through scenarios, Trip was trying to decide what to do when he heard the sound of an engine, which seemed to be originating from above him.

And after looking up through the car's dashboard window, he decided the engine noise was  _definitely_  coming from above him.

There was a large (and pretty swanky) jet coming to a landing on a rooftop. Trip didn't get too long to take in a good description of the ride before there came a large "boom."

Triplett braced himself against the car as he felt the area shake.

Despite the fact that there had just been an explosion in close proximity, the Centipede soldier continued his job of clinging to the armored car.

Then there was a second "boom."

And not only did this explosion cause the soldier to lose his grip, it caused the car to be pushed violently forward.

Triplett gripped the steering wheel as the vehicle cannoned diagonally. It eventually slowed to a stop as it tilted, teetering on the edge of its left wheels, until it finally decided to smash down onto the ground.

He only took a second to regroup his thoughts before realizing that the jet was touching down, right next to his car.

Pretty big jet, but no SHIELD insignia. Of course, that's not something he expected anyone to want to be advertising these days. He was reminded of one of his grandma’s old sayings: "an enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Trip got out of the car, but had his gun raised towards the jet as its lower ramp slowly opened up to reveal the single person standing inside.

"Simmons?" Trip said incredulously, just before laughing with relief. "You're alive!"

"I am." She nodded, not looking nearly as thrilled about the statement as she should have. By the state of her, she'd been through something. The left side of her face held some kind of burn. Despite her appearance, it was really hard not to wrap the science chick into a great big hug. "But now is not the time for pleasantries. Is anyone else with you?"

"I've got three in the car, all unconscious. One of them is May."

"Coulson and Skye?" she inquired.

"No, two civilians. Skye was captured, I saw it. Coulson, can’t say I know."

Two agents suddenly bustled out from the back of the jet, heading towards the car. One, a tall man with jet-black hair and dark brown eyes, stopped in front of them.

"Agent Simmons, you've seen your friend. Now shouldn't you get back to re-compression?"

"Re-compression?" asked Triplett.

"She's got the bends, and she's not out of the woods yet. We only let her get out because she wanted to make sure you knew we were friendlies," informed the dark-haired man.

"It's a long story," she sighed, giving off the impression it wasn't one she was quite ready to tell.

"And it's going to get longer if you don't get back in there," the man told her. "But I guess it's up to you if you want to pop like a soda bottle..."

"Oh, Agent Wolfe, though the pressure building aspects of my condition are comparable to carbonation stress when it is stimulated, I would hardly-"

"Simmons..." he told her in a warning tone, almost parental.

"Alright, I'm going. We'll talk once we get there," she assured Trip, walking back inside the jet.

"Where's the bird headed?" Trip asked, that being just the first of many questions he intended to ask.

"One of Director Fury's bases. Called The Playground."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick little chap. My favorites are ones with more Coulson, Ward or Skye ;)
> 
> Thank you so much SlightlyTwistedSilverware and icewitch73! I love da comments :D


	5. Coulson Wakes Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson wakes up to find he's not the only one Hydra has taken prisoner.

Coulson woke with a start, taking a deep, harsh breath as his head shot up from the couch he had been laid on. Quite a familiar couch.

They were on the BUS.

"There you are, Phil!" Garrett's voice boomed. Coulson was unable to see the man behind the sound until the Centipede soldier currently crouched in front of Phil stood up and backed off, taking the smelling salts with him. "I was beginning to worry."

"Oh, don't worry about me," said Coulson, pulling himself up. "You remember Malta. Took a much worse hit than an ICER."

"That's right. And I remember having a cold one or two of my own afterwards," Garrett laughed, standing up and walking over a table that held a single item: a laptop.

"Where's Fury?"

Garrett smiled. "Oh, the SO is fine, Phil. He won't be joining us, but I have someone else here that may interest you."

Coulson felt his last bit of hope fade away as Skye was marched into the room by another Centipede man, her mind seeming to be somewhere else entirely as they instructed her to sit by the laptop on the nearby table. Her eyes were trained to the ground in a miserable haze the whole time.

The hactavist looked worse for wear physically, too. Her face was scraped and dirty. In fact, other than an area on her chest where her vest had been, her entire body was covered in caked blood, mud and scratches. There was a blossoming bruise on her forehead next to a bloody gash down her cheek, and red, irritated eyes were proof that she'd been crying.

But despite all this and how distant she looked, somehow, the main emotion she displayed on her face was anger.

Eventually she did take a moment to glance up, carelessly noting her surroundings. Until her eyes reached Coulson, that was. Obviously surprised to see him, her mind seemed to snap back to reality.

"Coulson?" she gasped. Her tone was panicked, but relief peaked somewhere in her voice.

"Hey. Are you ok?"

She swallowed hard, maybe trying not to let the tears come through again as she attempted a faint smile of reassurance. It turned out more like a grimace. "I'm fine. What about you?"

Coulson didn't get the chance to answer.

"You know, you picked a real good one Phil," Garrett said, laying a hand on the back of Skye's chair. "She is going to be quite the asset to us. I know you can't see it, but there is so much more to this girl then just her computer skills or 0-8-4 label... and she even got a dose of GH.325! So many uses for Hydra to share in.”

"I told you I won't do anything for Hydra," she said quietly.

Garrett grabbed her chin roughly, forcing her eyes into his as she strained her neck.

"And I told you that you don't have a choice," he growled, jerking her between his fingers harshly. Coulson squirmed in upset at the sight.

“Leave her be,” he snarled. The sight of Skye under the control of such a traitor had him reeling.

John released her chin, opting to lightly pat the side of her cheek a few times. She recoiled in disgust. “Ah Phil, I wouldn’t dream of touching your little pet here. She’s far too precious.”

Garrett gave a nod to the curly-haired soldier that had used the smelling salts. He punched Coulson square in the stomach.

"Hey!" Skye shouted.

“You on the other hand…” Garrett mumbled off with a clearly fake tone of concern.

Coulson doubled over on the couch, trying to hold it together somewhat for Skye. Not to mention for dignity's sake. But  _damn_ , it hurt. After just one punch, too.

Maybe he was getting old.

" _That_  was just for what you did earlier. I did say you'd have to pay for it," he told the hacker, then turned to Coulson. "She's sort of off-limits. That means you get to take her punches for her."

"Good. I'd rather have it that way," Coulson stated wearily. "So what was that one for?"

Skye hesitated before answering. "Spitting... at him."

"Oh definitely worth it. Good work."

A soldier yanked Coulson up roughly by the hair as he held onto his stomach, attempting to make everything appear like it hurt less than it did. Meanwhile, Skye was giving a poker face of her own.

Garrett looked down at her. "And there's more where that came from if you don't co-operate." He chuckled. “Easily. Actually, I hope you do take a while to give in. Could be fun.”

"What do you want me to do? Hijack a plane? Hack the NSA? I don't  _do_  that stuff. Well, I did the one, but… I'm not going to take part in your mass murdering people plans just for the two of us!"

Coulson felt pride well up in him. He wasn't going to break, and Skye wouldn't break for him. She knew the stakes. Unfortunately, being here was still not going to be a picnic in the park.

"No no no Skye, nothing like that." Garrett circled her, kneeling down to her level as he pulled the laptop towards her. "We just need you to find your friends, Agent May and Agent Triplett."

"I have no idea where they went."

"But you can find out. You know what frequencies they were using. Trace it back."

"Why? You'll just kill them. I'm not going to give up more members of my team. That makes no sense!"

"I'll make you a deal. You do this for me, Skye, and I promise I won't hurt  _any_  members of your team. Including Phil, here."

Both the SHIELD agents scoffed. Skye even added an eye roll.

"Well, they may be hurt in a little in the transfer process, but I promise to give them a nice cell somewhere. Think about it Skye. SHIELD agents are being hunted down as we speak. And if someone else finds them, they're probably not going to make it. At least this way they'll get to keep their lives."

Tracking what was left of Coulson's team seemed almost counter-productive for the Hydra agent. Maybe FitzSimmons, given that they were geniuses (and currently MIA)… but there wasn't much of a point to grabbing two more rogue field agents.

"They have Ace, don't they?" guessed Coulson.

Garrett shrugged. "Kid's real popular. We need him back."

Skye was staring blankly at the computer. "What will happen to him?"

"He'll be well taken care of, assuming Deathlok does his job. So, what do you say?"

Her eyes trailed slowly up to his face. "How about..." she smiled innocently, "rot in hell?"

 _Nice_ , Coulson thought. And well delivered.

Of course he would have to pay for it, but that was ok. Skye was doing exactly what needed to be done, luckily. She hadn't exactly been trained in interrogation yet.

Coulson prepared himself as Garrett nodded at the soldier, but an urgent voice cut through the moment.

"Sir!"

It was Ward.

This was the first time Coulson had truly seen Ward –other than brief glimpses of being shot at by him- since he'd found out where his allegiance truly was. It was a strange feeling, thinking that the last time he talked to the man he had been so trusted that the location they had spoken in had been secret base. One Coulson himself had cleared him for.

It wasn’t exactly a _good_ feeling.

Ward strode into the room purposefully and walked straight up to Garrett.

"What, need help tying your shoes? I'm sort of in the middle or something." Garrett sneered, gesturing around himself. Ward held eye contact, apparently not bothered by the strange comment.

"I just thought you may want to know that when I looked through Skye's phone, it showed communication to Deathlok via the eye cam."

"Well now, isn't that interesting. I was just abou-"

Coulson watched as Skye leapt from the chair, faster than he would have thought possible for her. She swiftly grabbed a gun out of Garrett's belt and began to hold it out... at Ward?

But Garrett grabbed her wrist and with one powerful pull regained his weapon. It was impressive she had managed to get that far, but even Coulson wouldn't have bet on that small stunt succeeding from the start.

"Well, wasn't that stupid,” said John. “What's gotten into you?"

Skye was glaring at Ward with more contempt than Coulson had ever seen. Her lip was quivering.

"You... you murdered Fitz and Jemma!" Skye shouted. "You sick son of a bitch! They were your  _friends_. Fitz tried to stick up for you and you killed him!" She bit her lip, maybe trying to calm down. "You deserve to die. If I had just let Deathlok finish you off, FitzSimmons would..."

Skye broke off into an angry grunted noise, but Coulson could tell she was using her rage to hide her despair. He moved to go comfort her, almost subconsciously, but curly-haired Centipede man kept him firmly in place on the couch.

Coulson had no delusions about Ward. He'd made peace with the fact that he would do anything for Garrett and Hydra. But thinking of FitsSimmons and seeing Skye so upset… it was hard to keep himself in check. And what was worse, he didn't know what to say to her.

Garrett's mocking smile was back after the short disruption. "Ah yeah, I guess I let the cat out of the bag Ward. You weren't trying to keep that a secret, were you?"

Ward's expression was unreadable. But if Coulson had to guess, he wasn't too happy about the information Garrett was sharing.

"I'll do it," Skye said firmly, barely audible.

_No no no._

"What was that, sweetheart?" Garrett asked.

_Come on Skye, fight!_

"I'll freaking help you, alright!"

Coulson sat up, Centipede guy’s hand still on his shoulder. "Skye, think about this. We can deal-"

"No, Coulson! We can't. I can't... I can't have any more lives lost because of me."

"That's the spirit! Good way to look at it," chimed Garrett.

Phil jerked at the soldier holding him in place. "Skye, what happened to FitzSimmons is not your fault. The people to blame are right in front of you. You would be helping them. You cannot help them!"

She looked him right in the eyes, sighing. "I have to."

He could see there was no convincing her now. Ward's presence must have given her a new view on the situation. But to Coulson, Ward didn't even seem too sure about what he was doing. He mainly looked exasperated.

"Alright boys, let's allow the girl work in peace." Garrett guided Skye to sit back at the computer and pointed to his men. "You two stay here with her. Make  _sure_  she's working on the trace, nothing else. Ward, take Phil here to… oh what’d you guys call it? Ah yeah, the Cage! Catchy name."

"No, wait!" Skye exclaimed, her quiet voice morphed with determination. "Coulson stays here."

"I don't really think you're in the position to be making demands here, missy."

"Well, I think I am. This isn't really the best deal, you know. I'm helping the world's most evil organization, turning my friends in, and they get to go to some Hydra prison? Least you can do is leave him with me so I know you're holding up your end of the deal. It's not like this group is known for its  _honesty_."

It was hard to miss the glare she sent Ward's way with that last word.

"Eh, why not? Least I can do for the help, I suppose."

"And I'm going to need to use the comm's room."

"You're pushing your luck kid..."

"Do you want me to do this in ten minutes, or do you want it to take an hour? Cause I'm fine with the latter, honestly."

"You know what? Give the girl whatever she needs, within reason of course. Ward, with me. Everyone else hang here. I just need to take care of a few things and then I'll be back, and _you'd_ better be done."

Skye nodded solemnly as Garrett left. Ward followed quickly behind, just like the trained dog he turned out to be.

Lifting up the laptop they'd provided, Skye began walking into the comm's room. She paused to face a few Centipede men.

"C'mon guys, time's wasting isn't it?" she said cheekily, and Phil’s head turned as though a curious puppy at the sound of her voice. She had more skip to her step that Phil could easily say was out of place, given the situation.

Something was off about her. Coulson just couldn't decide what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Pamcakes8 for the comment!


	6. Simmons Just Watches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye needs a distraction. Meanwhile, Jemma watches over Fitz.

"Ugh, what have you guys done with this system? It's all... red. And the triangulation sensors are seriously out of whack! What is this, piggybacking on server to a CIA satellite? Oh, there's a pretty good encryption... not a bad idea actually."

Skye was talking a lot. Hopefully more than anyone was used to. Coulson, specifically. Ok, so she was a bit of a chatterhead normally. Not in these situations though, right? Maybe Coulson believed she was more immature than she thought...

No. He had to know something was going on with her. She had to get his attention. Because, short of mind reading powers, that was the only way her plan was going to work.

"Even if you had someone good enough to get the SHIELD servers up again, they wouldn't even be down if Hydra hadn't taken over everything. Such an inconvenience, to like, everyone! You know, maybe I _should_ sign up. Give this system a remodel, updatey, thing. It needs it..."

She glanced up briefly to the sight of everyone staring at her. Not that it was unexpected. The Centipede soldiers were dutifully looking ahead at attention, while Coulson just seemed desperately confused, blinking at her words.

"You boys don't say much, do ya?" she continued cheekily, swiping at the holotable and peeking at the laptop she was provided. She _was_ starting the work Garrett had left her with… just taking a long time with all the "inconveniences" she could come up with along the way.

 

Coulson honestly had no idea what was going through Skye's mind. Sure, she could be quirky, but not now. Not here. And half the things she was talking about he was sure she would shrug off in a second, at least in a normal situation.

"Eh, not talking is probably for the best," Skye rambled on. "It can be a  _big_  distraction. I talk so much I almost distract myself sometimes. Every now and then you need a distraction though, right? But all these firewalls are so _not_ the kind of distraction I'm talking about... I mean seriously, could you guys have made this any harder for me? So many distractions!"

 _You need a distraction. Pretty sure I get it!_  Coulson wanted to shout at her. She was being painfully obvious now, but at this point he seriously doubted anyone else had still been tuned into her babbling. Probably her idea all along.

Coulson made sure to continue giving her the same face he had since she'd begun talking. But he'd stopped blinking so much, letting his eyes roam the room. Surveying it.

Skye smirked for only a moment when she saw the change, but perhaps to make sure no one else would, continued her ramblings.

"The whole red color scheme is totally throwing me off though. That's probably the worst of it. Who wants to work with that as a background color? Do you know what's red? Nothing. Nothing is red.  _Red_ dit's not even red. Youtube's got the red logo or whatever, but its actual backgrounds are-"

Skye’s voice trailed to a stop when she heard the first grunt, looking up for only a moment to see Coulson had quickly picked up two metal circular things (she had no idea what they were, but they appeared pretty dang heavy), using them to bash the centipede soldier on the head. She noted the other two men in the room rushing towards Coulson, but her eyes didn't linger long enough to see what would happen.

Her hand dove immediately under the table and grabbed a small USB device that she'd known to be there, as she'd been the one to put it there in the first place. She then tried to covertly shove it into the laptop, starting her own work soon after she got it in. The decoy device would mirror whatever was happening on the laptop to the SHIELD holotable, or so it would seem. For the next five minutes and forty seconds she could do exactly what she needed using the SHIELD tech…

Coulson's gasp of pain snapped her out of her techno-world, and she hastily pulled the USB out of the laptop. It wasn't needed anymore, and having the soldiers see it would definitely be in the category of bad.

Skye nearly gasped herself as she saw the state Coulson had gotten himself into in a matter of mere seconds.

Eye screwed shut with pain –probably going to bruise- and a few cuts on his cheeks. Not to mention he was now on the floor, after obviously have been kicked or punched in the gut.

"Oh my god!" Skye shouted, beginning to run towards him. “Coulson-!“

"No." One of the soldiers stood in her way as a formidable barricade, pointing back at the laptop. "Finish the trace. And no more talking."

Skye glared icily, but no, this was good. She didn't have much longer until her time was up, and there was still a lot to do in order to make Coulson's distraction worthwhile.

One of the soldiers roughly hauled Coulson up.

"Move," he stated, giving him a push out the comm's room door.

Skye ran towards it, stopping with a great deal of annoyance as the remaining soldiers blocked her way. She peered around them. "Where are you taking him?" she asked. No one answered. "Hey! He's supposed to stay here."

"You've lost your privileges," growled the soldier, leering down at Skye in a way that made a chill run up her spine. "Get back to work."

Coulson was pulled through the door, but not before giving her a reassuring smile. The greatest, and quite possibly only, comfort they had right now was each other, so small smiles and consoling hints were the best they could do to keep up their spirits. Skye was grateful for the encouragement.

She sulked back to her post. The trace was already running, but she went to work on her own plan. Maybe it would be enough to get them out  _and_  keep everyone else safe.

After all, even if she did give Hydra Trip's location, it wasn't like he had anywhere specific to go. As long as she gave him enough warning time he should be able to vacate and get somewhere else before there were any problems.

Right?

* * *

 

They'd gotten to The Playground about a half an hour earlier. Jemma remained at Fitz’s side, and was determined to do so as long as it was possible.

The medical team that had been working on him ever since they'd been picked up in the ocean was persistent that she not be in the room, though. She insisted that as a doctor she could be helpful, but they assured her she couldn't help in any way that they didn’t already have covered.

But  _they_ wouldn't hold his hand.  _They_  weren't his best friend.

Of course, this was irrational thinking. Even if Fitz could somehow tell people were around him in his unconscious state, he couldn't possibly be aware of exactly what person was in the room. Still, she couldn't help but feel that she was being useless. There must have been something she could help with.

She was watching the medical team from just outside. There, in fact, didn’t seem much to be done at the moment, but he was still in an operation room. They’d allowed Simmons the comfort to watch from the observation deck.

Jemma sighed, turning around to catch Triplett staring at her from a casual leaning stance against the door. He'd been shadowing her fairly adamantly ever since they'd seen each other at the jet. Jemma knew he fancied her, but this was different. It was like he was checking to make sure she was alright. That she didn't break down.

Well, if she really gave off the impression of such neediness it was imperative she buck up a bit.

"He's stable, so they tell me," Simmons said when she walked up to Triplett, holding her arm nervously. "Basically all they'll tell me..."

"That's probably the only information they have to give," he told her. "The rest is most likely need to know."

"Well I need to know!" she exclaimed. "I'm a doctor as well, I can handle these things! I could aid them."

"There's a whole team in there with him. And actually, with so many of them tied up with Fitz, they could probably use some help with the others."

"The others? Oh god." Simmons gasped in realization. "Agent May, and the Cybertek couple! I nearly forgot they were here. Dear god, I'm such a bad person."

Simmons grasped her head in her hands to cover her eyes, but Triplett pulled them down with his own almost immediately.

"No, you're a  _distracted_  person, with damn good reason. And they're fine. May's definitely got a concussion. So she’ll need some good old TLC, but it doesn't look too bad. Those civilians were knocked out though should be waking up soon. Maybe we can get some answers out of them."

"Right, right,” muttered Jemma in agreement. “Well, I suppose I can see what I can do to help them."

" _There's_ the doctor I know."

Triplett smiled to which Simmons returned, if only as a thank you for the brief instant to not think about the state of her best friend. The tender moment was cut short by a blaring alarm coming from Trip's pocket.

"What is that?" Jemma semi-shouted over the noise.

"Not sure." He whipped the phone out of his pocket to give it a look over. "It's co-ordinates, moving pretty rapidly."

Simmons glanced over the phone. "It's coming from a SHIELD device." She looked closer, gasping. "It's coming from the BUS!"

"Got any idea what it is?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's Skye! She's found a way to show us her location!" Jemma beamed.

"Could just as easily be a trap." Trip mused, clearly not allowing good old positivity steer him. She supposed that could be wise. "I'm taking it to Koenig. Maybe he can decide what it really is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you ExcellentlyEllen for the comment! I'm curious guys: want an update every day or every other day? I can do either, and I know if life gets in the way it can be easy to fall behind. Let me know!


	7. Triplett Asks Some Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Coulson chat with Garrett. Triplett and Jemma try to find out who's sending them the trace of the BUS.

"I'm sorry."

Skye's apology was out of the blue. She and Coulson had been sitting together in the Cage for a while now, but there wasn't too much conversation to be had. Skye had been pacing the room, mainly focused on biting her nails. Coulson had taken the seat at the table.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. You were doing what you thought was best."

"I'm just sorry you got hurt. I didn't know what else to do."

Coulson glanced momentarily at the virtually invisible camera he knew to be in the corner of the room. Their conversation was being monitored, no doubt about it. But he was pretty sure she'd been talking about egging him on about making a distraction, even if Hydra (hopefully) hadn’t caught on that she'd done that.

What was bothering him more was that he hadn’t an utter clue of the point to the distraction. No one had seemed to notice, whatever it was Skye had done. But hopefully it was worth a small beating.

"Trust me, I've seen worse. You know, like that time I died."

She just nodded, probably too apprehensive to humor him much further.

Coulson sighed. "I'm more worried about what they've done with Director Fury..."

"Fury?"

"Yes. He helped me out when facing Garrett, but without Deathlok on our side, we both got taken out. I'm not sure what happened to him."

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry about that too," she grumbled.

"What?"

"Not getting Ace out in time to get the message to Mike. If he just _knew_ we had Ace, he could have taken out Garrett in a heartbeat. I bet we'd be in a completely different situation..."

"You can't know that," he said, standing to meet her. "Plus, if Triplett was able to connect with Fury's men to use their resources, they should be in a pretty good situation."

"Resources?" Skye mused, a pensive expression on her face. "You mean like... a safe house?"

"Sure, something like that. If we're lucky."

Skye's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She looked worried. Way more worried than Coulson thought she should, given that he just tried to give her comforting news. Before he could ask her what was wrong, the Cage door swung open.

"I thought I told you guys to keep these two apart after she finished!" Garrett shouted to the men behind him, and then turned back to the prisoners. "Idiots, really. But super powerful idiots, so I keep them around. You two ready for your new home? It's five stars." He waggled his eyebrows tantalizingly.

"Best day ever," Coulson deadpanned.

"Glad to hear it. And Raina is quite excited to meet you." Garrett nodded towards Skye.

"Oh, we've met. She just may not remember it too well from my fist connecting with her face," Skye said sweetly.

"Wish I could," said Coulson.

"Hah, you're so spunky!" Garrett said jollily. "And don't get me wrong, I love it. But you'll have to behave for Raina. Unless you think we need to have a repeat display of stopping a heart...because I think you know," his eyes trained directly at Coulson, "this time it wouldn't be Ward's."

* * *

 

"Make anything of it?" Triplett asked, leaning on the chair that Koenig was using. In front of him was the laptop he was using to analyze Trip's phone.

"I shouldn't even be letting you two see this… haven't even gotten your lanyards yet. This is way against protocol!"

"I'm fairly certain protocol popped out the window the moment SHIELD was labeled a terrorist organization," Simmons told him, a slight irritation to her voice.

"Well, there's no reason we have to be savages now!" said Koenig.

Triplett rolled his eyes. Agents who rarely saw field action seemed to always have a need to be extra uptight. "Then we'll make sure to get the damn lanyards! Can you tell us what's going on here first though?"

"Well, I can see that it definitely came from a SHIELD frequency."

"Yes," said Jemma, standing just behind both of them. "But can we tell if it's Hydra or Skye?"

"Not technically... but the trace is originating from hardware, not code. Which could mean your friend used an old device she'd known about, or Hydra just found it. Also, take a look at this." Billy clicked a few screens until a window popped up to show a video feed. It held a large mansion, with none other than the BUS sitting next to it.

"Whoa, how did you get that?" asked Jemma.

"Whoever gave us the tracking information to the BUS linked it with a CIA satellite. A  _hacked_ CIA satellite. We haven't been able to get any satellite coverage yet due to limited resources, but this is giving us a direct pathway into them."

"What's happening here?" Trip asked, pointing to the BUS on the laptop.

"Oh, uh, let's see if I can zoom in..."

A sudden knocking at the door took everyone's gaze away from the computer.

"Hey guys, I don't mean to interrupt," said Agent Wolfe from the doorway, holding his hands out in a surrendering motion, but a casual smile on his face. "I was wondering if I could borrow Agent Triplett for a couple minutes? The man and woman he brought in are waking up. I was told come get you if that happened."

"Oh yeah, thanks man," said Trip. He glanced between Simmons and Koenig, gesturing with his hand. “You guys got this?”

Koenig gave him a thumbs up. “Got it.”

“We’ll let you know if anything comes up,” said Simmons.

Triplett stood from his seat and followed Agent Wolfe into the hallway.

"Do you mind if I sit in?" asked Wolfe.

Triplett didn't know Agent Wolfe, but he was definitely on his list of allies at the moment. Jemma had been with Koenig - Billy, not Eric, which was confusing on a whole other level-, Wolfe, and only two other agents, other than the medical team. He wasn't saying he trusted them by any means, but they deserved his courtesy.

Trip shrugged. "Sure thing."

Triplett got to have a better look at the agent he didn't know anything about as he talked with him. He seemed about fifty, if he had to guess. Not too bulky, and despite his somewhat pleasant demeanor there was a gleam in his eyes that resonated seeing combat a few times.

"You been in the field much more since Hydra decided to show its ugly mug?" Triplett asked in way of small talk.

Wolfe cocked an eyebrow. "You say that like I wouldn't be in the field much before Hydra showed up."

Triplett hadn't said that, but he _had_ meant it. Sure, he didn't look too much older than Garrett or Coulson, but Garrett was a pretty hardy man. This guy, not so much.

Wolfe grinned. "Guess my age is showing. Yeah, I've definitely seen the field more recently. It's been a good… I dunno, ten years before that? But I started up pretty late, in my thirties, so I probably should have gone to a computer job right off the bat. I wanted to see what that adrenaline rush was like though." Wolfe gave Triplett a quick wink, reminding him of his old man. If his dad had ever been some white guy from administration.

"Mind if I ask a first name?" asked Triplett. "I'm thinking that pretty soon we may be dropping the 'agent' part of it anyhow."

Wolfe laughed, a hardy guffaw. "I guess that may be true. Actually, it probably should be true now. But I suppose we should try to keep some semblance of order..."

"You been talking to Koenig, huh?"

"Well, somewhat. But I do agree. Anyway, the name's Eli."

"Antoine."

"Ah yes, I know. Simmons gave us a rundown on your team. She's very... talkative, when she gets into it."

Trip smiled. "Don't I know it."

"You two together then?" asked Wolfe.

"Simmons and me? Nah."

"Ah. Well, I've been pretty deep emotion-wise with a woman before and let me tell you, you've got the look."

"The look? Man, that sounds like something a chick might say after reading Cosmo or something."

Wolfe shrugged, and Trip was glad calling him feminine didn't seem to faze him. "Well, when you really like someone, it shows. And she seems like a real sweet kid."

"Maybe I do, but she's kind of unavailable on an emotional level right now... so if anything came of it, it'd be after a good amount of time."

The two men turned the corner into the BUS’s longue, where Trip saw Zeller and the woman he'd picked up. Zeller was rubbing his head as though it was in pain, while the woman just looked worried and tired as she stared up at the two agents.

Triplett turned to agent-mode automatically as he stepped forward.

"I'm Agent Triplett and this is Agent Wolfe. We're with SHIELD. And you guys have no reason to be worried anymore; you're safe."

Zeller laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Safe? With SHIELD? I've just spent the last few months monitoring SHIELD activity and let me tell you, your organization is far from _safe_."

Trip stayed composed. "You're right, Mr. Zeller. But at this moment, right now, you are about as safe as you're gonna get after leaving Hydra. How're you feeling?"

"Pretty much like I was hit by a truck; what do you think?" he shouted.

"Well were you?" Wolfe spoke up, sounding truly curious and not unkind. Zeller stared at him. "I mean, we found you unconscious. Did you get that way from getting hit by a truck?"

"No, of course not! And, and what do you mean you _found_  us? Who knocked us out then?"

"That's what we're trying to get to the bottom of here," said Triplett, deciding to ditch his at attention stance and taking a relaxed seat on the couch across Zeller. "Can you tell me exactly what happened?"

Zeller looked overwhelmed, running a hand through his spikey hair as he exhaled a large breath. "Uh, ok. Well, there was this girl. And at first she was really scary and strapped a bomb to my chest, but it turned out that is wasn't even a bomb at all-"

"Yeah, that's my teammate Skye. She told me she was sending you two outside, but there was supposed to be a child with you."

"There was! She told us to go and that she'd distract the man… there was this man chasing us," he hurriedly clarified, "as long as we got the kid out of there."

"Where'd you get the gun?" asked Wolfe. "We found a gun on you."

"That was the girl's!" Zeller answered frantically. "She wanted to make sure we'd get out."

"She gave you her gun," Triplett repeated with an exasperated tone, almost not believing it as he pursed his lips. She really had no intention of getting out of there.

"She was so brave," the woman finally spoke up. "She rescued us, and I'm so grateful to her. Is there any way I can thank her?"

"Unfortunately, Agent Skye didn't make it off the compound. She sacrificed herself for you two and Ace," Trip said pointedly, and the woman sank back into the couch. "So tell me, what happened to the kid?"

"I'm sorry, but we don't know. We made it out of the building and I did have the gun out, but I didn't hear them and... and then it was black."

"Did you feel anything? Like it was an object that knocked you out?"

"Not really. It sounded like something was fired, and then I was just cold."

"ICER," said Wolfe, and Triplett nodded.

"But definitely not ours."

"Agent Triplett!"

They heard the faint shout and running down the hallway before Simmons’ panting and partially relieved face peeked in through the doorway.

"Agent Koenig..." She took a moment to recompose and rein in her harsh breaths. "Koenig was able to look over the satellite footage at the area it was tracking." She took another deep breath. "We've found Coulson and Skye."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every day it is! Thanks Missy8409 and ExcellentlyEllen for the input :D (With particularly short chapters I may update twice a day).
> 
> To be honest, I think my writing improves as time goes on, so I'm anxious to be posting the parts I enjoy more haha.


	8. Simmons Doesn't Know What To Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward keeps an eye on Skye. Jemma has an inner discovery.

Raina had begun her testing on Skye almost immediately after the girl had been marched off the plane. She had been led underneath the mansion, more of a sulk to her step than Ward would have thought possible. Not that he blamed her. If Hydra was true to their word, this was her life now: a human lab rat.

And he'd brought her here.

So now Ward was cashing in what bringing Skye here had bought him: watching her from a distance. Bringing her in _had_ been a direct order, but he'd be lying to himself if he didn't admit it gave him a fair amount of satisfaction that it had been Skye. She hated him, so keeping her captive with Hydra was the only chance he'd have to see her.

And if she didn't despise him before, she must truly have detested him now.

The facility they'd brought her and Coulson to had a substantial amount of space as well as an extensive lab, making Ward wonder how much pull Hydra had even though the government had labeled SHIELD a terrorist organization.

No matter how they’d managed to acquire it, they had. The facility was nice enough to have a large, open area for the testing, experiments, or whatever they were doing. This included an observation deck overlooking the area for analysis, which happened to be the place Ward had taken to observing Skye from.

The hacker was on a treadmill, wires dangling from multiple places on her body as Raina and two other scientists observed the physical, clipboards and all. This reassured Ward. For being in the hands of the enemy, having to do a little workout was far from torture.

Of course, Skye would definitely disagree with that statement.

Ward chuckled to himself, thinking of all the quips Skye would make about their workouts in the past being "worse than torture." Though admittedly, the griping had mainly been caused by pull-ups.

"Something funny, son?"

Garrett's smile spread across his mouth widely as he walked into the room, arms folded across his chest. It seemed like the look hadn't left his face since that drug had been administered into his body.

"No, just thinking about something that was," he replied stiffly.

"Involving the girl though, right?"

He almost didn't answer, but Garrett would have read it from his expression, even with how trained Grant was. Garrett knew him.

Ward nodded.

"I had no idea how deep this little crush ran," Garrett said, chuckling. Ward respected Garrett, without a doubt, but his smile was beginning to grate his nerves. "I hope it doesn't distract you from the big picture."

"Yeah, what exactly is that now?" Ward asked.

"Oh, you'll see. My vision has given me a great deal of plans for us, for Hydra. It's beautiful. As soon as we get our big gun's son back, we can begin working on it."

"And Skye?" Ward dared to ask; despite the risk that it would come off as weak. Compromised. But he’d been the one to bring her there in the first place, so that should give weight to something in Garrett's eyes.

"She will be fine,” Garrett said, waving his hand in dismissal. “We need her, Ward. She is the key to the new world order. The drug reacted differently with her because she _is_ something different. Quinn picked out this entire facility with her in mind!"

Ward scoffed. "Not to mention the giant playboy mansion up top. How does he manage to find these places?"

"Don't ask me; guy's got a talent. That's why I keep him around. Lord knows it's not for his people skills. Though, he does a pretty good job working over folks with big pockets, just with the politics of matters…"

Ward grinned at the comment, glancing back down the observation window to see Skye was dismounting the treadmill, batting her hand at the scientist who tried unsuccessfully to give her a towel.

Ward crossed his arms lazily, watching in amusement. She might have agreed to let them run the tests for Coulson's sake, but she sure wasn't going to make it easy for the researchers. Stubborn rookie.

"You know you can have her, right?"

Garrett's voice pulled the smile Ward hadn't even known he'd been wearing right off his face.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Garrett's eyes rolled with impatience as he clapped a hand on Ward's shoulder.

"I really hope I don't have to that explain to you. I know I taught you a lot, but I'd have thought someone would have already covered that lesson..."

"But you know Skye would never let us happen. I just kidnapped her for god's sake!"

"Exactly! You brought her here, so you've got a right to her. She's a spoil of battle."

Ward blinked, mouth gaping. "Jesus Christ John, will you listen to yourself? This isn't the Middle Ages!" he hollered, letting his anger shine through more than he'd prefer. "Ever since you've taken that drug you've been preaching like a madman! Talking about visions and the big picture... This was never the plan!"

"Plans change!" Garrett bellowed, his smile definitely gone. "And after everything you've done to get us where we are, I was just trying to help you find out what you want for you. But if you think I've lost it, feel free to leave. Throw away everything we've worked for. I've found something better than what we were going for, but if you've gone too soft to realize it, you know where the door is."

Ward stood still as a statue as Garrett stomped off to exit the observatory, but he twisted around in the threshold of the door.

"I came down here to tell you we were leaving to go find the rest of Coulson's team and the kid. But it seems to me you'd rather stay here with Juliet."

"You're grounding me?" Ward asked incredulously.

"Hey." Garrett lifted his hands. "I'm only trying to help you decide what you want."

He turned on his heel and was gone, leaving Ward seething.

Garrett had given him a lot to think about, but as Grant looked at the gritty girl downstairs, he realized it all boiled down to a single question: was he willing to throw away everything for someone who he knew could never forgive him?

* * *

 

Finding where Coulson and Skye were being kept was probably the first, and quite possibly _only_ , thing that had gone right that day. This was saying something about the SHIELD team's day, as their plan for getting them out wasn't exactly airtight. In fact, their plan for getting them out was barely even a notion.

They had three field agents, a scientist, and a communications expert. It would be difficult, not to mention unwise, to go up against an armed compound with so few people. Especially after having just done so when the escapade ended with the two agents being captured in the first place.

Jemma wanted to cry so very badly. But she kept a stiff upper lip, as her father had told her to do so many times when she’d had hardships back at home. It was essential that she stay strong because she was one of the remaining few who were even capable of such.

Koenig had explained that the satellite footage was streaming live from Costa Rica, which was not too far from their Colorado base (well, not too far for a plane).

Triplett sat with eyes trained to the ground, wracking his brain. "If we could find a way to see inside, even with backscatter or infra-red, we could make a decent plan. Seeing the outside of the building they're in really only tells us their location."

"Skye could probably get into their system," mentioned Simmons. "Or Fitz could have created something..."

"But right now they can't," Trip stated firmly. "We've got to figure this out on our own, Simmons."

"I know!" Jemma straightened her posture, near subconsciously smoothing out her blouse. "But we haven't had a very good handle on it so far, have we? That place is surrounded by enhanced super-soldiers, and we don't even have a decent analyst in our whole base!"

"Excuse me," said Koenig with a twinge of annoyance, "but I happen to be the most decent analyst I know. I’m aware it's not my specialty but I obviously have programming background with comms..."

"Oh gosh, yes, you're quite right! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that Agent Koenig."

He shrugged. "Well… I’m not sure if I can find it in my heart to forgive you. Words hurt, you know!"

"Hey, Mr. Decent Analyst,” Triplett said, “mind _analyzing_ what's happening on the screen right now?"

The field agent pointed to the computer that held the satellite footage of the mansion in Costa Rica. It was full of gold and extensive décor, definitely contrasting what Simmons thought most of that area was supposed to look like. But the mansion wasn't nearly as important as what was next to it, or more so, the lack of something next to it.

"The BUS is gone!" yelped a surprised Koenig.

"Yeah, I kinda _analyzed_  that for myself," Trip said with a smirk, staring at the large monitor in front of them.

"Ok, enough with the analyst stuff!" After throwing his arms up with slight exasperation, he put his hand onto the computer controls. "Let's see what we can see if we back this up a bit..."

Jemma watched as the BUS returned to its original position on screen in a backwards manner. In a similar way, soldiers began backing off the plane at a high speed until Koenig played the footage forward again.

"Not only does it seem like they left... but they took all or most of the Centipede men," Koenig observed.

“That's brilliant!" Jemma shouted, positively beaming. "This would be the perfect opportunity to go rescue Coulson and Skye!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there, eager-pants," Koenig said, effectively dousing Simmons' excitement. "We're still hours away from there with no clue how long they'll be gone. And we have no idea how many other guards they have stationed there, super powers or not.

"Yes, but this is our best chance!" Jemma insisted desperately. Why wouldn't they want to take it?

"Girl's got a point," Triplett agreed, and Jemma was glad for his support. "Even if now isn't the best time to go in, we should take the jet down there so we're close and ready if a better opportunity presents itself."

"That makes sense..." mumbled Koenig, rubbing his chin in thought. "Alright. I'll tell Agent Wolfe and the others to get-"

A voice burst through the speakers of the Playground base, interrupting Koenig's sentence and causing them all to look up.

"Code blue; medical staff please report. Code blue; please report."

Jemma felt her heart plummet a straight dive into her stomach as her face paled.

"That's… that must be Fitz!" Her voice cracked with panic at the end of her sentence. She found the will to move her feet, running to the downstairs medical rooms.

Why hadn't she stayed there? Why was she up making silly plans when her best friend was in intensive care?

She bolted quickly down the steps until arriving downstairs, meeting the whole medical team wheeling a gurney.

Jemma could hardly keep from sobbing when she saw her friend shaking and jerking on the table.

She had seen him quite a lot since the accident. She had memorized every scrape and bruise, the way his arm had been casted as well as the remaining marks that the lacerations from the bends had left on his skin. But she had never seen him like this.

"Simmons, move!" ordered Bennett, the head of the med team. She was a strict older woman with a no-nonsense attitude. But in this instance Jemma had to agree: Fitz needed whatever they had to give.

Jemma sidestepped so her back was against the hallway wall as the team rolled seizing Fitz by. She wanted desperately to ask what was happening and what she could do to help, but in her mind she knew that they would tell her nothing. Plus, it would be against Fitz’s well being to distract them.

After watching them take him into the O.R., she let out a shaky breath, one she wasn't even aware she'd been holding inside, hanging on tight to for comfort. She allowed her back to slide down the wall as the tears fell freely, sobbing and sniffling into her arm.

It was as though she'd sat there for an eternity before Jemma felt hands on her own, and looked up with puffy eyes to see Trip kneeling in front of her, his own eyes pooling with sympathy.

She sniffled. "There's so many things that could have gone wrong with Cerebral Hypoxia, I don't know why I didn't stay with him. I should have. But I couldn't have foreseen what it was going to do so I didn't do anything… I didn't know what to do. I-I still don't know what to. What can I do? I don't know what to do!"

Simmons wailed and rambled to the point that she might have sounded entirely mad, until Antoine pulled her hands forward and wrapped her into hug. She sobbed harder in this man's arms than she'd ever done in front of anyone. Even when Skye was shot, when Fitz had been the one to hold her...

She felt the same helplessness she had with Skye. Even hope was starting to disappear. If Fitz... died, how could she stay in SHIELD without her best friend? Her partner? How could she bear to live, knowing that she’d never told him the truth?

A truth that had suddenly become the simplest axiom in the world.

She loved him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Missy8409 for the continued support!


	9. Skye Gets a Bedtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a peek at Skye's stay at Hydra.

"Thank you so much for being cooperative, Skye. It really is in everyone's best interest."

Skye slowly trailed her eyes upwards from their thoughtless staring. The anxiety, rage, guilt, worry, sadness... well, the onslaught of emotions brought on from her current situation and events surrounding it had made her near numb at this point, while they did their little "experiments." She barely even noticed the vultures.

Except for every time that this bug-eyed bitch had to speak up.

"You _know_ I'm not being cooperative for you, your mad scientist freak friends or even me. I'm doing it for Coulson," she seethed. "So if you could stop 'thanking' me for something you're forcing me to do, that'd be  _fan-freaking-tastic.”_

Raina remained standing next to Skye's cot, superior posture still evident. Skye’s sarcastic comment had not bothered the woman in the least. And why should it? Despite the ways that Skye could lash out in her limited capacity, they would always have the upper hand. At least until she figured a way out of this place.

But she did make the scientist currently taking her vitals jump when she’d spat the last word, and that was somewhat satisfactory.

Little victories.

"But you should be doing this for yourself, Skye." Raina pleaded with her, stepping closer to the bed. Skye rolled her eyes to look away from the woman. "I may technically work for Garrett, Cybertek, or even Hydra, but it doesn't matter. What matters is what knowledge can be gained."

Skye turned to her with a smile. "You're insane," she chirped, then dropped her false grin immediately. "You work for Hydra, you hurt people, and you say it's all for the sake of science?"

"Pursuit of knowledge."

"Whatever! You're a bad person if you think that justifies what you've done. To Mike, to Chan, and to whoever else you've gotten your hands on."

Raina shrugged. "Well, if we weren't forced to be under such unsavory circumstances, you would probably realize that you and I have very similar goals: we both want to find out about your past. What you are and where you came from. I'm sure you want to know."

"Not from you," Skye spat.

Raina let out an almost pitying sigh. "You've been searching for answers for so long. Moved around in foster homes for not being wanted, without any inkling as to why. I’m sure you assumed it had to be you, as that had been the only common denominator. And it did. We could truly help you find what you've been looking for." Raina paused as Skye ground into her lip with impatience. "Because honestly, I understand Skye. I understand what it's like to not know about your past and be unsure about your future. To not know what you are-"

"Are you really about to tell me some kind of origin story?" Skye asked incredulously. "Because I'd rather you shut up and finish prodding me with your needles."

That was the first time Raina actually seemed surprised. Dejected at being cut off, maybe thinking that a natural curiosity from Skye would have let her finish that particular thought. This lady was conditioned to believe people would always trust her twisted words, but Skye wasn't going to indulge her in any of that crap.

"Alright then," Raina told her curtly, her professional air back in place on a dime. She nodded to the scientist in gesture for her to finish up on Skye's arm. "It should please you to know that we've finished preliminary testing and are done for today. I'm sure you are tired, so you should probably try to get some sleep."

Skye scoffed. "Of course, because why wouldn't I have a bedtime here?" She paused. "Do I even have a bed?"

"Oh, of course. Garrett made sure Ian Quinn had sufficient living quarters made up for your stay here. But tonight, we actually need you to sleep in the med lab to prepare for tomorrow."

Skye's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "Oookay. I'm kind of afraid to ask, but... what's tomorrow?"

The woman smiled, as though amused at Skye’s naivety. "Well, it's when we help you find out what happened in China so many years ago."

Raina glanced behind herself and Skye saw clearly what she couldn't believe she didn't notice earlier: the memory machine that had been used on Coulson.

"But I don't... I was a baby! I can't remember that. It's not like they're repressed memories, I literally had no idea what was going on  _when_  it was happening!"

"That's why you need us to help you. There's no way you could recall something like that yourself, but with this machine, with _us,_ you can be the key that unlocks the answers to your own questions."

Skye's BS detector was going off like crazy. Raina definitely wanted her comfortable with this whole memory machine thing, so her willingness to do it would definitely play a part in how well it would work. Maybe threatening Coulson wouldn't work because they needed her to  _tell_  them the truth. She could play along, but she didn't have to tell them anything.

Well, anything true.

"That does actually sound intriguing..." Skye fake mused. She was tempted to stroke her chin in thought, though theatrics weren't going to sell her story, ironic as that was. "But it sounds like a pretty horrific thing to have to remember."

"I promise, it will be worth it."

"Sounds like it," Skye said dismissively. "When do I get to see Coulson?" She wanted to get off this memory machine subject, and that question was burning in her mind. If she was going to do this, she wanted to make sure they were holding up their end of the deal.

"I'm not sure," admitted Raina lightly. "I wasn’t aware that your bargain had anything to do with visits to see him."

"Hey, I agreed to this testing in exchange for him not being hurt. How am I supposed to know if Hydra’s keeping their end of the deal?"

Raina smiled, but only for a moment. "Garrett usually tries to make those sort of things known, from what I've noticed of him. He seems to enjoy flaunting superiority."

"I still want to see him."

"Well, I'll be sure to speak with Garrett about that. But for now, you can use this room as if it were your own. There's a nightgown on the chair and toiletries to get ready for bed in the bathroom. As soon as you're ready, one of my assistants will finish getting you prepared for the night."

Strangely, the first thought about what Raina had said was that Skye _hated_ sleeping in nightgowns. Still, she picked up the sleepwear anyway. This whole ordeal was really a "pick your battles" type of thing.

She realized it was more of a medical gown that you'd wear in the hospital than actual pajamas. Sweats and comfy shirts were usually her thing, topped off with socks. It might have been strange, but the orphanage didn't have the best heating and it had become a comfort that her feet be restrained at night. It was something Ward had always managed to make fun of her for.

As she walked to the bathroom, she scowled at the thought that Ward was somewhere here. He could be watching her, for all she knew. Hydra wasn’t exactly the most caring organization, so odds were they were not big on privacy. Probably even cameras in the bathrooms...

She changed quickly as that thought entered her mind, heading back out to realize that Raina was gone and only one scientist… researcher person remained. All they did was hook up an IV, pressing some kind of drug into it that, even when Skye asked, they didn't tell her what it was.

Which was slightly nerve-wracking.

The scientist switched off the main light when they left, leaving Skye to be accompanied by the low beeps and flickering of the medical machines that were still on in the room. She wasn't tired, and everything in the room was distracting even to someone who was ready to sleep. Mere moments later, her eyelids felt thick and began slowly drooping...

 

Skye woke heavily. She must have been in the middle of a deep sleep, but activity around her had coerced her mind out of the slumber. Along with a bustle of hushed voices, she could see and feel the harsh light over her closed eyelids, warning her from opening them completely.

She squinted her eyes but was only able to see that something like a dentist's lamp hung above her head. Skye hadn't had good experiences with the dentist as a child (which was probably the last time she had been there; "accidentally" biting Dr. Newman's rough hand) and her expectations were low that this would fair much better.

"This is a very rude wake up call," she mumbled to anyone listening, just as she tried to bring a hand up to cover her eyes and block out some light.

But she couldn't.

Skye tested out every appendage, only to find that they were all tied down. Not with handcuffs, but with the soft cuffs you put on a crazy person or someone in a hospital.

The light was pushed away with a clatter, allowing Skye's eyes time enough to adjust and see Raina standing over her.

"Hey, what the hell is this?" She gave her wrists a few tugs. "I agreed to help you!"

"They are really just more of a precaution. Unfortunately, this is a very old memory, so we'll have to dig pretty far into your subconscious." As Raina gently lowered a headpiece down to secure it around Skye's head, she couldn't help but flinch away. Not that she could go far. "I think you'll find it may be hard to keep yourself still, even if you try."

Skye felt a fear manifest inside herself, true and undiluted. Because she realized, Raina was right. She was tied down, flanked by indomitable people. No clue where she. The only person here that actually cared about her was a prisoner.

Hope was fleeing from Skye fast, now, with only torture and pain offering themselves up in immediate replacement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you icewitch73 for all the comments! And just so you know... next will be a Simmons chap, but 11 is all Ward!


	10. Triplett Finds Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trip attempts to get Jemma to eat something, until they have unexpected visitors.

Fitz had been in surgery for six hours. Trip didn't know the extent of what had caused it, but he knew the man was going to be in surgery for a long time afterwards.

When a doctor had come out to talk to him and Jemma, they had said that what had happened was unprecedented. Otherwise, they would have had Fitz staying at a hospital. But with the risk they thought was lower and the amount of people on the lookout for anyone involved in SHIELD, they’d decided the base was safer.

Of course, this had only made Simmons cry harder, blaming herself for making the wrong decision and talking about how it should have been her.

No matter how hard he tried to convince the girl to take a break, she refused to sleep. Eventually he figured it was just bet to be there with her and sat with her at the operating room door for near two hours.

"Hey, if you're not gonna get some rest, how about we grab some grub?"

“I'm not very hungry," Jemma replied drearily, wiping her eye. No tears had fallen from her face for a good few minutes, but the motion seemed routine and near subconscious now. "But if you are, you should go. You need to replenish as well. I just know I won't be able to."

"Tell you what,” Trip said easily. “You come with me to the kitchen, just to get a walk in, and then we'll snag a snack to bring back here. You don't have to eat it," he added, when she was about to protest.

She considered it a moment. "But what if Fitz wakes up or... something happens?"

"Kitchen's real close, ain't it?"

Simmons was having an inner conflict of the highest order by the way her face was paled, dimly staring ahead. "I suppose... I suppose that would be alright."

Triplett's hand unfolded in front of Jemma’s head. She graciously took it, standing up with a stretch to her legs after sitting for so long.

The kitchen was actually one of rooms nearest to where they'd been at, which was probably the only reason the scientist had even considered coming.

She paced around the island table that was in the center of the small room, while Triplett searched for some kind of sustenance. Koenig kept it stocked with what Antoine mainly thought of as junk food, but there were some pistachios in the pantry.

"Like nuts?" he asked.

Jemma shook her head, just slightly. "Not particularly, but I won't be eating them, will I?"

"C'mon girl, there's gotta be something here you want." Triplett went back into the cupboard, expectations now lowered. And, he reminded himself, health probably wasn't the first thing on Simmons' mind right now.

Well, her health.

"How about this?" he pulled out a bag of Hershey's kisses. If there was one thing Trip knew about women, it was when they had emotional problems, always treat with chocolate.

"Hah!" Jemma let out a single incredulous laugh, which Triplett could honestly say was not the reaction he'd expected. Another mopey response of no, grudgingly refusing the candy… but not the laugh. "There is no way you would get me to eat that!"

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't like chocolate?"

Jemma looked flabbergasted, almost appalled. "Of course I like chocolate! Proper chocolate, like Cadbury and Nestle. That is hardly chocolate."

Antoine couldn't help but chuckle. "Okay, so a big 'hell no' to Hershey's chocolate." He was placing the bag back into the pantry when some graham crackers caught his eye. "Wait... you still like s'mores though, right?"

She shrugged. "They're fine, I haven't had them in years. But anyway, s'mores aren't exclusive to using Hershey's chocolate."

"If they're done right, you bet your ass they are!" Triplett exclaimed, causing a faint smile to tease on Jemma's lips before she seemed to catch herself, and it disappeared completely. "So what did you use for your ‘ _s'mores?_ ’" Trip asked, making sure to put air quotes around the word s'mores. Leaning over the island, he opened the bag of nuts and cracked one open.

"Well, we went camping a while back... mum, dad and I. I'd always enjoyed seeing s'mores on American TV, so mum bought some marshmallows, _Cadbury_  chocolate bars," she said pointedly, "and digestive biscuits."

Triplett's head shot up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What in the _hell_ is a digestive biscuit?"

"You know, like a biscuit, or a cookie-"

"Nu-uh. Those are not s'mores. You've never had a s'more."

"Oh, I haven't, have I?" she giggled.

"Nope. We'll have to get you one sometime soon. But it's got to have marshmallow, graham cracker, and Hershey's chocolate. No exceptions, no replacements."

She was full out laughing by the end of his statement. Caught up in her joy, it took a few moments longer before she remembered her dismal situation. Her cheeriness then dwindled until her face held no outward signs of happiness.

"I have to get back to the OR."

Simmons walked dutifully towards the door of the kitchen. With a sigh, Triplett was soon shadowing her heels.

She’d made it near outside the room when May appeared in doorway, causing Jemma to jump.

"May, you're awake!"

She didn't acknowledge Simmons' observation, her narrowed eyes glancing between the two of them urgently. "We've been compromised. Hydra's on their way here in the BUS."

 

 

Jemma heard what May said, but it was difficult for her to believe it. Weren't they supposed to be safe here? Wasn’t that what the base was for? How could this keep happening!

Triplett had immediately gone into action mode, standing up straight and striding towards the door.

"This where Garrett's been heading since he left?" he asked May.

"We think. They managed to trick the satellites so we lost track of them for a while. But the only necessary information is this: if we don't leave now, we'll be leaving with Hydra."

Their conversation had been going on like background music in Jemma's head. It was all too much to comprehend. She couldn’t focus on them at all, not until she felt Triplett tug her arm.

"C'mon Simmons, it's time to go."

She tore herself out of his grasp.

"Not without Fitz!" she exclaimed hotly.

Jemma didn't wait for them to protest, or even agree. She just bolted down the hallway and towards the outside of the OR, where she was met with a rather dejected looking medical team.

Her run slowed to a discouraged walk.

No. No.  _No._

Jemma's mouth hung open in disbelief as the head doctor walked over towards her to tell her the inevitable.

"We're so sorry," said Bennett, who was so fresh from the surgery her scrub cap was still on. "We did everything we could but... his brain couldn't take the stress.”

Simmons couldn’t speak. Her mouth tried to form a sentence, but she barely managed “H-how do you, you-?”

Bennett gave her a rueful half smile and sighed, taking pity on her stammering. “He voided his bladder a few minutes ago, which is a sign that his system is-"

"I know what it bloody means!" Jemma screamed, her voice cracking. It meant Fitz was never going to wake up.

He was brain dead.

The woman put a hand on Jemma's shoulder. "I'm very sorry, Agent Simmons."

Jemma couldn't even bring herself to cry. It was too unreal. She just shook her head in disbelief, a large haze muddling her mind.

Everything was a blur then: May and Triplett coming down, urging the medical team to leave and helping them up the stairs. But Simmons was inside her own thoughts.

This had happened before. A doctor had told her face to face that there was nothing they could do and that she'd never wake up. But Jemma had saved Skye, despite all the odds.

It was the drug. There was a drug out there, and it could save Fitz. There was no way she would give up on him.

"JEMMA! We need to leave!"

By the sound of Triplett's voice when Jemma had finally been pushed out of her thoughts, he had been shouting for a little while.

"Help me get Fitz."

"What?" Triplett shook his head. "No way, there's no time! And I'm sorry Simmons but... he's gone."

Jemma scowled. "What are you talking about? He is living, breathing and warm in there! Coulson was dead for days, and you're saying there's no chance we can get Fitz back? I refuse to believe it. Now help me get him onto the jet!"

Triplett nodded eventually, and reluctantly, but he did nod. They made their way into the O.R. room to see Fitz still lying on the bed.

The doctors had been so concerned with getting to the jet they were just going to leave him there to die slowly. How could they? He was alive, dammit!

Jemma immediately went to checking his vitals, trying to ignore the face that had lit up her world with so many smiles and jokes before, because it was too hard to look at in this cold, depressive state.

She was still observing what needed to be done when Triplett began to push the gurney forward.

"No!" shrieked Jemma. "He needs the oxygen, and the... he- he actually needs a lot of these things. They're keeping him alive. It's going to take some time to get him."

"Time is something we don’t have, Simmons!” Trip shouted, and she near winced at his voice. But she knew it was laced with caring. He sighed. “Will the jet even support these machines?"

The realization hit her like a freight train. It wouldn't support the machines. If Fitz were brought onto the plane, he would die.

Triplett seemed to read the realization from her face.

"I'm so sorry Jemma, I really am. Fitz in no way deserved this. But we're leaving. Now."

"No, I can't! I'm staying. You go." She nearly sobbed the words, taking Leo’s hand in her own. He was the only thing worth her attention right now.

She noticed Trip coming towards her and jerked away, still keeping a tight hold on Fitz’s hand. "Don't even think about touching me! This is my choice. Please just go, I can't let you keep everyone else from leaving!"

His head tilted to the side with a sympathetic look instead of trying to grab her again, which surprised Simmons. She was aware he could overpower her, and she didn’t really doubt the man would try in such a situation.

Then she felt the prick in her neck.

"Ow!" Jemma yelped with surprise. Her hand rushed to her neck as she turned around, already tripping as she started to lose her balance.

May caught Simmons as her legs buckled, and Triplett ran to help.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked.

"Yes," May stated bluntly, without explanation.

Jemma wanted to say so many things as felt the betrayal seep down deep to stain her mind. But she couldn't seem to get the words out, already feeling herself slip away.

She desperately tried to get one last look at Fitz, just as a goodbye. Jemma used every inch of will power she had available, but it wasn’t enough.

She could only make out the bottom of the cot before her vision faded away completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Missy, yes I know... Skye probably gets the worst of it out of anyone in this series!


	11. Ward is Confused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Skye's in trouble, Ward rushes to her aid... whether she wants it or not.

Ward was trying, not without temptation, to back off Skye.

Garrett grounding him had left Ward with time to think, therefore realizing that being near her wasn't going to help anyone. It wouldn’t help Grant prove to John she wasn't a weakness and it certainly wasn't going to help Skye see him as anything but a monster. Watching her workout wasn't really worthy of the title monster in his eyes, but it was definitely borderline creepy. He only saw this clearly once he'd given himself a moment to think, Garrett-free.

Still, he couldn't get Skye out of his head. She was here as a prisoner. So was Coulson. He'd worked with them as a team for months, and now the only reason they were locked up was because of him. (Well, at least Skye was surely his fault).

He'd admitted to caring about Skye, out loud as well as to himself. But Coulson? Of course the man was a good person, but Ward had been prepared to make personal connections while undercover. It was just something you had to get over.

He'd told Raina he owed Coulson something, and Garrett everything. It was just… Ward had never expected Garrett to actually ask for _everything_.

Then there was the fact that said man had possibly gone mad. How could Grant follow him, hurt someone he cared about, when he didn't even agree with what his leader was doing?

Ward’s mind was moving in circles, going over these thoughts over and over and deciding what to do with the information. He always did allow his mind to wander when he lost himself in his morning workouts. It was easy for it to loop back around.

It made Grant's head throb, all these dilemmas. Nothing had ever been simple, he'd always been a person to make the hard choice, but it had at least been  _simpler._

He gave the bag one final punch before walking off to grab a towel, noticing Quinn coming from the lab.

"Whoa, someone's sweaty," chuckled Quinn.

Ward didn’t even bother to humor the man. "That happens when you actually try to be healthy. You may want to try it sometime," he said flatly. Grant’s eyes appraised the man with little interest. "So, the billionaire has decided to grace us with his presence from up high."

Quinn laughed and began to walk toward Ward. "You're right, my presence is very grace giving,” he agreed, nodding as though realizing it was a truth. “I was actually just checking how Raina was doing with my Gravitonium. She's supposed to be working on it, you know."

"Not really." Ward wiped his face with a towel. "I didn't realize that was her priority."

"Well apparently it's not! She's down there working on that girl... they all are!” he shrieked overdramatically, forcing Ward to roll his eyes. Quinn sighed. “Of course, I knew she'd be looked over somewhat when I picked out this facility, but I definitely thought something as powerful as my Gravitonium would be the more crucial subject. How valuable can she be if they told me to give her two in the gut?"

" _Hey_ ," growled Ward, slightly harsher than he intended. Slightly. "How about you don't bring that up. Ever."

"So you're still hung up on her?" Quinn chuckled smugly, placing his hands in his pockets. "I thought you were over her by now. Saying you care for someone you captured, then brought here to be tortured? Kind of a hard sell in my eyes."

Ward scoffed. "Tortured? Raina's just running some tests to find out where she came from. She isn't hurting Skye. Garrett assured me she's off limits."

"You believed that? God, they tell you less than they tell me. You may want to go check on what's happening down there."

Ward barely took a moment before speeding off after he heard such an ominous remark. Definitely not waiting around to hear Quinn say something else sarcastic and probably narcissistic.

He went to the observation area he'd been watching Skye on the treadmill from, not seeing her on any of the medical equipment. A quick scan of the area told him that there was a generic medical room over to the side with transparent glass. Not much privacy, so definitely intended for watching the specimen purposes.

There wasn't much to see from this vantage point, but if Ward had to guess he’d say that almost every scientist working in the building resided in that room at the moment, staring at an object in the center. It was a machine. By the looks of it, there was a person strapped to it.

Ward had a fairly good guess of who it was.

He glanced over the observation deck console. His eyes hastily noted a switch to one of the microphones, catching his attention due to be labeled "medical lab." He flicked it, almost immediately wishing he hadn't.

First, he heard Raina's voice.

"It's ok Skye, just calm down."

"I _can't_!" Skye’s strained voice burst through, such a tone Ward had never heard from the girl before.

"Just look around. What do you see?" Raina asked, her calm, eager voice contrasting massively from Skye's harsh, rasping one.

"Nothing! I don't see anything, I swear! Please, p-please just let me stop. J-just a break. I'll go back in, I promise. Please!"

Her voice was ragged and filled with interrupting gasps, leading Grant to believe just getting the words out had caused her extra pain.

Ward had only heard Skye beg once before; it had been when she was pleading with someone not to kidnap or even kill her at Quinn's damn party. It was also one of the first missions they'd gone on.

Ward knew for a solid fact his rookie was much stronger now. Back then, he’d been able to come to her rescue and she had been grateful for the aid, for being the shining knight she always used to expect him to be. But now?

"We're already so deep, Skye. If we turn it off at this moment, you'll just have to go through the entire process again," he heard Raina explain sweetly, as if coddling the tormented girl made up for anything. "We're just going to go a bit further..." she mumbled, and he heard a few beeps in succession, each raising in pitch. Like the noise of heightening volume.

That's when Skye screamed. A horrific, near-inhuman scream. Grant had jumped at the sound and he was never one to flinch. He began running to the room just a moment later.

"Plea-hea-ease!" he heard her sob as he neared the room, the request taking place of the screaming for only a moment. Not that it wasn't at the same volume.

When he was almost to the door, Ward heard one of the scientists say mildly: "If she's in so much pain we'll never get a clear answer."

Raina sighed. "Give her a moment to find her footin-"

Grant burst through the door, swiftly grabbing some sort of sharp medical tool - he was never good with labels on those sorts of things - off the counter and bringing it to rest on Raina's throat.

"Shut it down!" he growled at the woman. Ward wasn't even sure what it was, but it was hurting Skye. He spared a quick glance at the endlessly screaming girl: Skye's eyes were screwed shut, her sweat-soaked body trying mindlessly to struggle out of her restraints.

"Ward. Garrett wouldn't like-"

"If you think I give a shit about what Garrett thinks right now, your damn flower dress is about to get a blood stain."

Raina's large eyes got wider for a moment, something Ward didn’t think was even possible, until she motioned to one of the scientists to turn it off.

The frazzled man (who had one of the biggest mustaches Ward had ever seen, and he'd been to Russia) went to the controls jumpily, flicking a few things on the touch screen until the machine powered down. The blue lights faded away as its mighty engine whirred to a stop.

Skye stopped screaming, her spent body flopping onto the cot woozily. Her eyes were no longer clenched tightly, but they remained shut as her labored breathing echoed through the room. Ward wasn’t able to tell if she was conscious anymore.

He lowered the tool from Raina's throat as he glanced around at the spectators. There were maybe ten of them, all holding clipboards. _Researchers to study their science experiment,_ thought Ward bitterly.

"Garrett won't be pleased," commented Raina.

"You were killing her!" Ward exclaimed, his infuriation growing at the annoyance of Raina's tone always seeming to be the same. "And since when do you care what Garrett wants?"

" _I_  don't. You do. But both Garrett and I care about discovering Skye’s lineage. And she would not have died."

"What, because she's not human?" asked Grant incredulously.

"Yes," she said simply. “Not completely, anyway.”

"Ok, well maybe you weren't around when she was  _shot,_  but she had a pretty human reaction before they gave her that drug."

"Trust me, her mind is much more capable than her body." She took a few steps forward. "But tell me, Grant Ward, what are you going to do now?"

Ward's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you saved her. The gallant soldier has saved his princess from the dragon,” Raina said, giving a quiet huff of laughter. “Whether or not she would have preferred the beast over you.”

It shocked Ward. The woman was creepy enough without seemingly being able to read his thoughts, as his mind had crept towards the same analogy just moments before.

“But even if you stop us from doing this right now, you know Garrett will want us to resume this when he gets back,” Raina continued. “What then? Will you betray him, for Skye? Who matters more?"

Ward stood stunned for a moment. No matter how hard his brain tried to puzzle it out, he truly did not know the answer. He shook his head. "I will talk to Garrett. But for now, this stops." He turned his body around slowly, threateningly, to make sure everyone could see his resolve. "You hear that? Do  _not_  do _anything_ to this girl." He pointed to Skye firmly, giving her a quick once-over when he did.

He found her looking back at him.

Her tired eyes appraised him with emotions that couldn't be read. It might have been hate, revulsion, a sliver of gratitude... it was impossible to tell. She just stared, breathing heavy.

"Alright then, we'll wait until Garrett returns. There are some things we have to do while she's unconscious anyway."

Raina began filling a syringe with what Ward could only assume was a sedative. Skye tensed and recoiled with apprehension. Her muscles relaxed just moments later as she merely gazed downward, clearly realizing there was nothing she could do to stop this from happening. After all, she _had_ agreed to the experiments. Her restraints wouldn't even allow her the illusion of fighting back as Raina walked towards her with the ominous needle.

"Wait." Skye inclined her head towards Raina, clenching and pulling away the arm that held the IV Raina was about to inject some sort of medicine into. "I want to talk to him first."

"To me?" questioned Ward, shocked.

"No, the Swedish Chef over here." Skye jerked her head weakly to the scientist who had turned the machine off.

Huh. He did look like that Muppet.

"Of course I mean you!" she exclaimed.

"Everyone get out," said Ward without out hesitation. Skye wanted to talk to him. Good or bad, he needed to hear what she had to say.

The scientists hurriedly shuffled out of the door. Ward certainly had put on an intimidating show for them. Raina was the only one to remain in the room, helping the headpiece to the machine off of Skye and undoing her restraints before walking outside. Surprisingly, she didn't have any parting words.

Skye sat up with some difficulty, but Grant knew better than to offer her help. She was too proud.

And then there she was, staring at him again. Reading him.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" she finally asked him.

Ward was confused. "With Hydra?"

"With me!" she shouted hoarsely. Her eyes scanned the room wildly, trying to contain her disbelief. "I just, I don't understand. I keep trying to figure you out, and I think I do, and then you do something like this!"

"Is it that hard to believe I don't want to see you hurt?"

"Yes!" She nodded frantically. "You kidnapped me, _kidnapped_  me, with the handcuffs and the dragging around, to be this woman's own personal Frankenstein experiment. Why the hell would I think you care at all what happens to me?"

"Because-"

"Because you want me around so you can have something for yourself? So you can just  _take what you want_ from me?" she sneered.

Those were his own words she was throwing back at him, but they were twisted. Except… they weren’t. That sentence, when parroted to him, truly sounded like what she was insinuating.

Even if it was the furthest thing from what he’d meant.

"Skye, I would  _never_  hurt you."

She scoffed, motioning around herself and pointing out her current surroundings. "Seriously? You already have!"

Ward knew she wasn't just talking about being captured or even letting Raina be in possession of her, but about FitzSimmons.

"Even if you really did believe that you wouldn't hurt me, I wouldn't know because _I don't know you_! All I know is who you pretended to be… and that you're a murderer. Which I could _maybe_ learn to understand, because you were trained and you thought you were on a mission and basically brainwashed. But you killed Fitz and Jemma. Good, innocent people who called themselves your friends. You betrayed them and you lied to all of us. So please, just... stop."

Ward couldn't follow. "Stop what?"

"Stop trying to be a hero! Stop trying to be better, stop trying to help me. I can't take it!"

"You can't take help?"

"Not from you."

"Why?"

"Because then _I'm_ betraying them." There were the tears finally; they'd been threatening to fall for so long. "If I feel any sympathy for you... if I do anything but hate you, I'm spitting on their graves. So please, if you care about me at all, just stop. Because you getting to be the hero while still keeping me here can only be to make yourself feel better."

He wasn't... he wasn't trying to do that. He really just didn't want to see her in pain.

But in the back of his mind, he started to put it together. He was keeping Skye here for Garrett, while saving her from pain for her. The best he could do with each person so that Grant wouldn't have to make a choice that would be difficult for himself.

But he could make another choice.

"Skye, about FitzSimmons..."

Skye's nostril's flared. "Don't you dare-"

"Just listen to me! Fitz and Simmons, they may still be alive!"

Skye gasped, her mouth remaining open in shock, as it seemed to try and form words. Finally, it did. "How?"

And Ward was ready to tell her. Explain to the best of his ability those actions and any others she was curious about. Because he had to come clean. Clear his conscious and finally do what he knew to be right.

But then he heard the voice that had dragged him down and picked him back up again for so many years.

"You know, I was just about to ask the same thing."

Their heads turned simultaneously to see Garrett. He was staring at them wildly from the doorway, his mouth wide and teeth gleaming with a predator’s grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayyy Ward and Skye! My favs in this story.
> 
> So yesterday I almost posted one of these chapters to my other story... so if I ever mess up, be sure to let me know! 
> 
> Comments are love <3


	12. Simmons Cries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simmons comes to terms with what happened to Fitz.

Simmons was met by the familiar hum of an aircraft engine when she regained consciousness. Her body feeling too many aches to move even an inch, it took a moment longer to realize she was lying sideways in a seat on the jet.

"It was a miracle we were able to get everyone out in time."

"Damn satellites... What the hell happened?"

"Koenig isn't really sure, but we can't trust that feed anymore. Apparently it was a trap."

Though her eyes weren't even open yet, Simmons was able to recognize the hushed voices coming from two of her newest teammates. And, as her mind caught up with the present situation, she remembered they were also two of the few _remaining_ teammates.

The weight of her grief once again hung heavy on her shoulders.

"I don't know... that was definitely Skye and Coulson on the feed," Triplett said thoughtfully. "They _may_ be trying to lead us off track, but it's worth it to check it out."

"I assumed that would be the case," said Wolfe, and Jemma managed to open her eyes to see the man nodding in agreement. "Most of our agents want to go home, you know. Now that another base, one that was _assured_ to be safe, was raided... they've just lost faith."

"I don't blame them." Triplett folded his arms after shifting his legs a bit. They must have had been talking for some time already. "But I'm seeing this through. If there's any chance we can take Garrett down and get Coulson and Skye back..."

"Oh, I understand completely."

"What about you? Still Agent Wolfe, or do I have to start calling you Eli?"

A bemused smile crept up the side of his mouth. "I'm prepared to stay, if you'll have me."

"That's what I like to hear."

Jemma began to sit up, finally alerting them to the fact that she was awake. It hadn’t been her intention to eavesdrop, she just didn't really care whether they knew or not.

In fact, she didn't really care about anything right now.

Triplett noticed her stirring and immediately ran to her side, concern coating his face.

"Hey! Whoa, take it easy. I'm guessing your head has to hurt."

He tried taking her hand to help guide her, but she pulled away before he had the chance. She sat up of her own merit and turned to stare out the window. It was like looking out into a white abyss. Somehow, that seemed fitting for her thoughts.

"Jemma?" Triplett asked carefully, her lack of response clearly worrying him.

"Do I not still get to be called ‘Agent’ then?" she spat. She didn't really want to dignify him with a response at all, but it seemed he wouldn't leave her be otherwise.

"Sorry, Agent Simmons." He squatted down to be on her level, trying to search for her eyes as they refused to move from her gaze out the window. "I just... how are you feeling?"

Well that question _definitely_ did not deserve a response.

"If you don't mind, Agent Triplett, I'd rather not speak with you until the moment it is imperative, given that we have to work together to get to Director Fury, Agent Coulson and Agent Skye," Jemma said, surprised how even leveled her voice was. "Though to be honest, I'm surprised  _you're_  so much as willing to go back for them."

That was rude… and untrue. He had gone back for Fitz, but he’d also determined the point when it would do no good to continue staying there after noting her friend could not be moved.

What  _had_  been unforgivable was that he'd taken away her choice, her right, to stay there with him.

Wisely, Triplett did not defend himself.

"Agent Wolfe," Jemma started, standing up and walking passed Triplett without so much as a glance, "what's the current agenda?"

"We're dropping of majority of the agents," he said without hesitation. "Those remaining would be me, Agent May, Agent Koenig, and Agent Triplett. Then we're headed to Costa Rica."

"For an attack?"

"For surveillance. Our feed turned out to be unreliable. Then hopefully after we get enough information, we can make a plan to head to retrieve your friends."

"Thank you." She nodded and then turned around to face Triplett, who stood up at attention as though he'd been caught slouching by a teacher of some sort. "What did you do with Fitz after I was unconscious?"

He stood frigid, as though contemplating taking his chances at jumping out of the jet than answering that question. Simmons stared him down, but her face wasn't harsh. It was basically void of any emotion, save expectance of an answer.

"I took him off life support," he finally revealed, eying her pityingly as he did.

She kept staring at him, trying to process what the words meant. He took her silence as need of an explanation though, and began saying something about how Hydra would have done worse, still ending his life, until she cut him off.

"Is May flying the jet?" Simmons asked bluntly, and Triplett nodded in a stunted motion. "Thank you for the information. I need to go discuss something with Agent Koenig," she said listlessly. Turning on her heel she began to walk out of the room, but she didn’t have the slightest intention of finding Koenig.

She wanted to be alone.  _Needed_  to be alone. She would allow herself a few moments of weakness before recollecting her wits to help save Coulson and Skye. Hope had been all that'd been keeping her together the past days, and though her hope for Fitz’s life was now demolished, there was still hope for Skye and Coulson. It was all she had to cling to, and so she would.

The jet was smaller than the BUS. Most places were filled with occupants, many of them the medical team, who were the last people she wanted to see at the moment. Not that she blamed them… she just couldn’t take seeing their faces.

Eventually she found a janitorial closet. It was small and there were random items lying all about the ground, but she snuggled herself in between the objects and plopped herself on the ground.

Finally, _finally_ she allowed her mind to take in the fact that was ever so much the abominable truth.

Fitz was dead.

She would never see him again. Would never hear his chipper voice again. Never have a science partner that inherently knew what she was going to say or collaborate together like clockwork. Her best friend had left this earth, murdered, as a fugitive.

She realized there would be no chance to get him a burial. Whether with a body or just… the symbolic significance of one. They were on the run.

Cognizance of all the future moments she would miss and feelings she hadn’t noticed when he had been around to act on them pounded into her like bullets, until she finally could hold it in anymore. She sobbed, drenching the mop and any other objects that happened to be in her crying’s path.

So, for a while, Jemma merely let the tears cascade down in her own personal safe space, weeping into her arm about the loss of FitzSimmons' better half.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was a... fun chapter, huh?
> 
> Thank you Patricia, icewitch73 and pamcakes8 for the comments! They do fill me with glee. (Bring on the pain is a good attitude with this story, icewitch!)
> 
> If you guys want another chapter today (Skye and Ward) let me know. I'll be happy to comply if people are keeping up :)


	13. Skye Regrets Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrett comes to talk to Ward, then finding a worrisome interest in Skye.

Skye's head was spinning in endless circles and it wasn't from some machine having been digging around in her brain a few minutes ago. Ok, it wasn't  _just_  from the head excavation, because that had definitely hurt like hell.

The hacker had never experienced a pain so severe. If she hadn't been fairly sure that the procedure didn't involve scooping out her brain like it was ice cream, that's what she would have thought they'd been doing. The machine dug its way into her head, pulling and pinching, moving all the bits that were unimportant until it found the right ones. At least, that's what it felt like when it was happening.

A small voice in the back of her head had said that she'd been giving up, that she was weak, when she started pleading with Raina to turn it off. But it was a very, very, quiet voice at that moment and all too easily ignored.

That was before the crazy woman had cranked the darn thing up, because at that point Skye really had no idea what was happening. She could just barely start to make out images of carnage and fire, as she couldn't seem to grasp what was happening.

How confused she had been. If she hadn't been so scared the confusion would have been an overwhelming emotion, but the two feelings worked and fed off each other until all she could feel was true terror to a point of incomprehension, like she was afraid for the first time ever in her life. That, coupled with the pain, made her lose track of whatever her body's physical responses were.

Until it all stopped. Her relief was short-lived though, when she’d realized Ward had been the one to end it. She was no longer relieved because she'd rather not owe a traitorous murderer anything.

And though a murderer he was, no doubt about it, he was telling her that FitzSimmons might be alive.

Which was why Skye's head was spinning.

She had so many questions. Where were they? Did Ward really try to kill them? He said they  _might_ be alive, which prompted her into thinking they were still in danger even if they were breathing.

Skye would have asked these questions, if Garrett hadn't made an entrance. Out of all the horrible things that had happened to her in the past day, having to merely _look_ at Garrett was on the top of the list.

Though she felt drained and her head was pounding into her ears, Skye channeled all her hate at that man, because honestly, she despised him more than Ward at the moment. Even if Ward was evil, which might or might not be less true based on recent evidence, Garrett was. And he was a huge reason Ward had become the way he was.

"You're back," Ward stated.

"So it would seem." Garrett gestured to himself as if proving his point. He then took three large steps so that he had entered the room and stood at the foot of Skye's cot, staring at her. Staring _down_  at her. She felt the sudden urge to stand up, but knew that would be a difficult (and perhaps embarrassing) feat if she tried in her current condition. "Skye! Want to know where I've been?"

She at least tried to appear taller, raising her chin. "Not really, but I'm guessing you're going to tell me anyway."

"I took a little visit to something called The Playground," said Garrett with not absence of excitement.

Skye nodded, moving her head with fake musings. "Yeah... unless you just went to hang out with a bunch of little kids, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, were you not invited to the club house? Guess she's not as special as we thought." Garrett said, looking at Ward with a laugh that he seemed to hope they'd share. Ward didn't partake. "It's where your trace led us, to one of Fury's bases. Did I remember to thank you for that?"

Skye's face blanched.

She hadn't known about any base. She suspected some of Fury's people might have helped her team out, considering Coulson had said SHIELD’s director had been at the compound. Maybe a small safe house would be left, but not a _base_.

All of a sudden, Garrett frowned. "What I _don't_ need to thank you for is the satellite information you gave them when you pulled that little stunt with Coulson."

Skye stifled a gasp. She hid the frown. But her eyes betrayed her when they grew into wide circles.

"Yeah, we caught that,” he continued as he read her reaction. “Unfortunately, those aren't our satellites, so it's not like there's anything we could do about it. Though, we were able to run a little interference…"

Skye's heart plummeted. She didn't know who or how many people had been in that base, but they were surely caught now. Or if Garrett didn't feel like keeping his promise, dead.

"By the time we got there though, nothing. Nobody was left."

He shrugged, like it was the most unimportant detail in the world, and Skye had near whiplash from the direction reroute of the story. She scowled with confusion, wondering why he was suddenly so ok with the situation.

"Well, actually, we did find one thing," he laughed. "Which is why I have a bone to pick with you, Ward." The specialist stiffened ever so slightly as Garrett turned his attention towards him. "I expected the girl to make a move against us. Given that she's our _prisoner_ ,” Garrett spat, announcing the word slowly as though trying to remind Ward of the fact. “But why would my, oh, I would be inclined to say,  _adopted son_  lie to me?"

"I didn't lie," protested Ward quickly, as though a child caught fibbing. "I dropped them in the ocean. They should be dead."

"Aw, come on Ward, it's time to fess up. That thing was supposed to float and you knew it. Heck, you set it! Actually, it's pretty strange we found him in the condition we did."

'Him?" Skye piped up.

"Your engineering friend was the only one left at the place."

Skye glared suspiciously. "I thought you said no one was there."

Garrett chuckled. "Well, nobody was  _completely_  left. We found your friend on freshly powered down life support machines. Guess your team dropped him like yesterday’s oatmeal when the going got rough." He sighed with a very fake mask of regret. "He's barely alive now, not to mention a vegetable. Actually, the only reason we brought him in was to give to Raina, she said she could have some use for him with testing. Hopefully I didn't get your hopes up too much."

Skye's blood boiled, her anger pointed out to both men as the heart monitor started beeping rapidly.

"But I'm willing to look passed this moment of weakness," Garrett continued, directing his attention at Ward again. "Guess I'll just have to accept this part of you. That you get sentimental about weak, defenseless things that you get close to, like Buddy. You just become attached to your pets."

His eyes trailed to Skye, lingering with distaste as she sat seething. He raised a pointed finger at Ward.

"But the moment you start putting weak nobodies before the big picture, then we'll have a problem."

Ward shook his head, finally showing some inkling that he'd even been listening to the speech.

"You keep talking about this big picture, well I can't see it! And I'm not about to put people's lives at stake for something I don't even know is worth it," said Ward, pausing before adding almost as afterthought, "I didn't sign on to become a monster."

"No, you signed on because I got you out of your hellhole of a life and actually made something out of the pathetic, weak kid you started out as!" barked Garrett, before calming down drastically. "And you're going to keep helping me, because you know you'd be nothing without me, even if I wasn't able to iron out of all your kinks. You know I can see the whole plan. If you stay with me long enough, you'll be able to see it too."

Ward’s eyes sparked with intrigue. Hope. "You want to take me on the next op?"

Skye felt like she was sitting in on what should be a very private conversation. Not that these people really deserved any privacy, but it sure was giving her a glimpse into how worked over Ward had been by Garrett. Maybe Ward had agreed with him, or maybe Grant just wanted to get off the subject, but to Skye, it still sounded like all he wanted was this man's approval.

Garrett grinned, patting Ward on the shoulder. "Of course son! You're my best guy, even if you have a soft spot for some of these kids."

Skye could have sworn she saw Ward exhale a small breath of relief, just before shaking his head. "But you didn't get Ace. I thought Deathlok was vital to the next step of our mission?"

"Well he sure as hell would be convenient, but needed? Nah. He'll just have to stay asleep until we can find another way to control him."

“ _Control him_ ,” Skye echoed, and scoffed in disgust. “You can’t seriously… People _aren’t_ just some Hydra collectables to be set aside until you find a way to manipulate them!”

“Aw Skye. That’s sweet, but… what on god’s green earth do you think you are, then?” Garrett asked mockingly, cocking a taunting eyebrow.

“I think I’m a person, and I think you’re an asshole,” she muttered. “Doesn’t seem like a hard concept to me.

Garrett’s grin stretched upwards in complete amusement. “You don’t even know what you are, sweetie. Neither do I, but I can’t wait to find out…”

Skye bolted up, despite her state. “I’m not-“

"But you _said_ we needed Deathlok _,_ ” Ward cut through her sentence loudly before she had the chance to say the very hurtful rant she had quickly planned. He was either very single-sighted, or was trying to get Skye to stop talking. Maybe just get Garrett’s spotlight off of her. “That he was important. What changed?"

"Nothing,” said Garrett. “I've just been making revelations. We have a good team with our Centipede soldiers and Raina is making progress. Then of course, we'll have the most powerful weapon of all pretty soon," he said, his eyes swooping over Skye as she sat on the bed.

"Me?"

"Skye?"

"Well, yeah! Special, special, Skye…" he mumbled, gazing at her longer than she felt comfortable with. But comfort probably wasn't going to be on her daily list of feelings for a while now.

So far Garrett had basically called her a collectable and a pet, now he was calling her special? Kind of contradictory. But it was with a hated awakening that Skye realized, for Coulson, she’d probably become whatever Hydra expected of her.

Though there were _some_ things she just didn’t have in her.

"I can't be a weapon," said Skye incredulously. "I can't do anything! I mean I can hack stuff and you could maybe take over the world that way in  _theory,_ but that's a long way off from actually-"

"Jesus Christ, you sell yourself so damn short!" exclaimed Garrett, almost desperately. "If only you could see… everything about you. It's just so different. I can see the true potential inside of you just itching to get out, and it just doesn’t know how!"

"I don't really feel any itching," said Skye flatly.

"It's like there's a genetic code running out of every fiber of your body every time you so much as _speak_ ,” he said, his hand grasping the air in front of Skye’s face almost desperately. “I can see it and know what it means, but I just can't explain it…"

He was ranting now, talking and pacing like there wasn't anyone in the room, even though his statement was obviously directed at her. He ran a hand through his slicked back hair, messing it up a tad.

Skye noticed Ward take a cautious step towards her bed to block the space between herself and Garrett. She was unsure if it was intentional or not, but with how still Ward had been up to that point, she was inclined to think it had been on purpose.

Garrett was at the table near the sink, his head hunched over as he looked down into the metallic hole. His hands gripped either side of its small surface.

"Maybe if I could touch it, feel it… I could understand it even more," the man muttered. When he turned, Skye saw the glint of the same tool Ward had been holding just a few minutes earlier to assault Raina. "It's your genetic code I'm seeing, so maybe your blood could tell me what I need to know."

The heart monitor beat even faster.

"Um, they've taken lots of blood tests," Skye sputtered as Garrett began approaching her, his eyes nearly glazed over in demented focus. "I don't really know what they've done with them, but needles are probably a better way to get that than, like, surgical tools?"

He kept coming closer, some sort of mad glint to find out more painted on his face. Ward scooted closer to Skye in response and his side almost hit her as it bumped into the bed.

That's when she saw the gun in his belt.

Without hesitation, she grabbed it out of the holster and fired three shots right into Garrett's chest. Deciding not stick around to see the fallout, she ripped out her IV (by the way, ouch) and bolted out of the bed.

She was exhausted and everything hurt, but she ran right passed the madman and out of the medical room door. Skye thought she saw him begin to get up behind her and heard a scuffle of some sort. Not that she stopped to turn around and observe the scene.

In the vast area they had for testing she glanced around herself frantically, not knowing what to do next. The doors all had card swipes –which, if she had a computer she was confident wouldn't be a problem but of course she had no such thing- so she was just stuck inside. She briefly wondered if Coulson was being kept behind one of the many hallways closed doors.

Despite her frazzled thinking and searching for a way out she hadn't stopped running, and in that running had run right into the transport of a person on a hospital bed. Someone she knew.

The horrifying image of her friend lying unmoving in front of her stunned Skye into stopping, eventually even backing up a few steps as she clasped a hand over her mouth to contain the shock. He was bruised, burned, broken… and lifeless, despite what the beeping of the heart monitor next to him was conveying.

 _This is a nightmare,_  she thought to herself, unable to comprehend the image of her friend next to her, adding it to the pile of woes that had been building up over the past day.

"Skye," said Raina calmly, reaching out for the young woman. The hacker hadn't even realized she was there until she’d spoken. "You should be in bed."

Skye backed out the woman’s reach as she shook her head in disbelief, not even sure of what she didn't believe in anymore. Maybe just being in this messed up situation with so many horrific factors adding up to a point where everything was starting to seem unreal.

Never had she regretted what she'd done, learned or lost joining SHIELD until that moment.

She wished she'd never gone digging for her parents. She'd rather not know who, or even _what_ , they were than find out this way.

Of course, then she never would have met her team. Never would have made these bonds with them. But in the end that only led her to finding out one to be a traitor, one to be used against her, and to lose all the others.

Her thoughts weren't the only thing telling her this though, because when she felt Garrett rip apart her skin with the cold metal she realized that this wasn't a nightmare; she was in her own personal hell.

Skye wondered what she'd ever done so wrong to deserve it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Such chipper updates today! :D (sarcasm, for the dim.)
> 
> Last chapter was short, but this one's a good length! I got four comments from the lovely Patricia, Missy8409, Icewitch73 and SlightlyTwistedSilverware encouraging me to update twice today. Sorry it's another cliffie, tomorrow should wrap this scene up though, when we get back into Ward's head...


	14. Ward Makes a Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward helps the person who's more important to him.

John Garrett was gone.

Ward was sure of this from the moment he had begun his warpath to attack Skye. The man he owed everything to, though brutal and maybe a traitor to SHIELD, had also been smart and collected. No one was supposed to harm her under Garrett’s own orders, as he’d understood the importance of her well-being.

But because of that drug addling his mind, he was going to attack Skye himself. Ward had to finally accept that the substance had changed his SO, and it was becoming increasingly clear that he wasn't ever going to get him back.

Another problem lay with the fact that the GH formula had not only changed Garrett's mind but his body, assuring Ward he'd stand no chance in a fight with him to protect Skye and would ultimately leave her defenseless against a super soldier. Instead, he'd given her easy access to his gun.

She'd used it. A few solid hits to the chest -giving Ward a sense of pride at Skye’s aim- but with Garrett's new physical form, he wasn't down for too long.

Ward had rushed to his mentor’s side the moment the shots had rang out, asking if he was all right just as Skye made a mad dash them. He received only an irritated grunt in return as the man stood, clearly driven by single-minded thought.

"John, listen to me, you shouldn't hurt the girl," Ward protested, trying to stop Garrett by grabbing onto his sleeve. The man’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker Ward’s way to acknowledge his presence. "Hey! I'm trying to help you. You were the one who didn't want to do this!"

Eventually John must have grown bored, frustrated or annoyed of Ward clutching onto him, because Garrett suddenly shoved him backwards with a mighty push of his arm.

The world swiveled as Ward flew through the air and landed on the medical supplies closet, denting the thin metal doors as he collided with them. Not exactly a soft landing but it could have ended worse, as med rooms tended to be home of strange tools and needles.

It took too long for Grant to stand up and realize there had been no real damage done - to himself anyway, the door had taken quite a beating. Too long, as by the time Ward exited the room he spied Garrett out instantly, already holding a squirming Skye in his grasp just about ten feet away.

She struggled furiously against him, batting his chest with her free hand and bucking her body enough to even injure herself. But Garrett paid no mind to what would be quite a nuisance to any normal person. Instead he merely held her bleeding palm up to his face, staring intently in captivation as though studying the red liquid. For a moment he appeared so eerily entranced Ward was afraid he was going to try and drink it.

The fact that the thought even crossed Grant’s mind horrified him.

"Incredible…" Garrett mumbled, the first words he'd spoken since his rambling earlier.

Skye finally gave up on her ineffectual struggling as her limbs and legs gradually slowed, the fight easing out of them. She collapsed to her knees wordlessly, causing the arm Garrett still held to stretch, as he didn’t bother to give her so much as an inch of leeway. Skye closed her eyes tightly as her head geared downward. She was either lost in thought or trying not to have any at all. Maybe even attempting to hold back the tears that still slipped effortlessly through her eyelids anyhow.

They were breaking her. She'd been there just over twenty-four hours, but she was already starting to break down. Ward knew Skye was strong and it would take a while to make her stop bouncing back from anything she survived, but he watched as fear, hopelessness, and pain were already beginning to mold her, just as they had him.

Grant should have never brought her here. They were just going to manipulate and use with no mind to Skye’s well-being until there was nothing left.

"What's going on?" Raina finally asked, having been a placid bystander to the whole incident. "Garrett, what are you doing?"

"I'm seeing what's on the inside," he muttered to her, still too beguiled with whatever Skye’s blood was made of to give the woman the courtesy of a glance. With a horrifyingly soft sound of metal moving through the air, he began lifting the knife once again.

Skye was completely unaware that the tool was heading directly for her face.

Ward swiftly picked up his gun that Skye must have dropped on her way out of the room, firing it directly at Garrett's hand.

It hit his wrist, so he recoiled the metallic weapon being held up and dropped Skye's arm instantly. He seemed more stunned by the hit than actually hurt by it, though the blood splattered on Skye's face made it seem like it had been fairly direct.

With the release of her arm, Skye kicked back into gear and fiercely stood with a cradled arm. She frantically scrambled away from Garrett, who looked around himself wildly, as if finally realizing the situation. At first his eyes were wide with confusion, but they soon narrowed with anger and blame. Ward could see his outrage plain as the light of day.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled to Ward, striding towards him in a harsh rage. But ever step he took had been away from Skye. That was the important thing.

"You weren't listening to reason," Grant stated calmly.

"So you shoot me?" he asked incredulously.

"To be honest, it seemed like the only option. And I knew you could take it." Ward tried desperately to keep his tone light, despite wanting to chew him out for acting about as insane as one could get. It was clear the only way he could get them out of this was having Garrett believe they were still on the same page.

For an uneasy second or two, Garrett glared, but eventually his mouth lifted into a smile. "You're right about that. Barely feels like a scratch!"

Ward lowered his gun, which he now noticed he’d continued pointing ever since he’d made the shot. He glanced sideways to see Skye. She was shivering with terror and pain as tear tracks raced down her face. The sight broke his heart, the grating cherry on top being that the woman helping guide her away was someone she hated: Raina. At least she was inspecting Skye’s hand. The blood had made streaks all down her arm from the way Garrett had been holding it up.

It wasn't a small amount.

Skye gazed back at Ward with conflicted, pleading eyes, and he wondered if she was rethinking her request asking him not to be the hero.

But he didn't care if she hated him or not. He was getting her out of this place.

Ward didn't dare to think about the comatose man on the gurney that was being rolled away at the moment. _Or_ the person who had made him that way. That could open a floodgate of conflicting thoughts Ward couldn’t even start to comprehend right now. He always had his mind strictly compartmentalized with emotions.

Garrett wrapped his arm around Ward's shoulder and began walking them towards the opposite direction.

"So, are you ready to go?" he asked, suddenly back to his jolly gung-ho self.

"On the op?" Ward asked, somewhat startled by Garrett's sudden change of tone. As though the man hadn’t just tried to kill Skye, as though Ward hadn’t just put a _bullet_ through him. Grant tried to keep up with his timbre. "What are the parameters?"

"Well, I thought we'd give the Gravitonium a little test. You know, a demonstration."

This didn't sound like a mission. It sounded like a show of power and Ward didn't want anything to do with it. But in hopes of staying in Garrett's good graces for his and Skye's well being, he nodded, placing an eager smile on his face.

"Sounds like fun."

* * *

 

Ward wanted to see Skye one more time before he went on this mission with Garrett. Before, all he’d yearned for had been orders, but now he just wanted to get out of there. He'd be on his own -no Garrett, no government facilities - but at least he could get Skye out of this situation. And though it may be slim, there was a chance he could convince her to stay with him for a while, for her own safety. Maybe he could bring Coulson too. Ward was fonder of Coulson than most people and it could get him on Skye's good side anyhow.

After that he wasn't so sure what would happen. No more Hydra, no more SHIELD, and no more orders.

For now, he just wanted to reassure Skye nothing would happen to her, despite that she might not believe him or would attempt to refuse his help. He had to let her know he wasn't just leaving her there to face this alone.

He walked through the lab completely dressed and ready for combat, which seemed to make the scientists shy away from him. Because of this, he didn't have much of a chance to ask where Skye was, but it didn't take too long to find her.

Skye was still in the observational medical room the whole fiasco had started in. She was fast asleep, wires and electrodes spouting out of her from every angle, though the most from her head. Despite the obvious tests, he couldn't help but feel relieved she was unburdened by recent events in this state.

Ward found himself solely staring at her for a few moments, until he heard Raina's voice from just outside the room.

"I think we should leave a little earlier. It shouldn't change the plan much.

A pause. She must have been on the phone.

"Cherry Hill? I've never heard of it. Though I haven’t spent much time in Ohio.”

She walked into the room, stopping with a start when she saw Ward staring back at her. As predicted, she had a phone to her ear.

"Yes that should be good," she continued. "I have to go now, we'll talk soon."

She brought the phone down and hung it up with the click of a button. It remained in her hand as she headed towards Ward. All she had on was another flowered dress, so perhaps she had nowhere else to put it.

"I take it that was a personal call?" he asked.

"Yes, it was."

Ward didn't really care what Raina did with her time off. Frankly, it was strange to think that she even existed outside of her malicious attempts at discovery.

"She's sleeping and it's only 15:00," Ward observed. "There a reason for that?" It was possible she was exhausted, but probably unlikely.

"As I said earlier, we'd like to run some tests while she's unconscious, mainly to monitor brainwaves. It's probable she'll be asleep for a few days," she told him, looking down at Skye with a near fond expression.

This relieved and concerned Ward. For one, they couldn't use that machine on her while she was sleeping, so she was safe in that prospect for hopefully as long as he would be gone. But keeping her in an induced sleep for days? It probably wasn't too good for her general health.

Raina sensed his worry, taking a step closer to him with what he supposed was meant to be a smile of reassurance. It unnerved him. "Her safety is our top priority, despite what you may think. She'll be fine."

Grant scowled. "Maybe, but apparently her safety means two different things to us. Though I don't think _you'd_ let her die. When Garrett gets back, I'm not so sure," said Ward, and then decided to disclose his thoughts further. "He's really losing it. I thought he was before, but now…"

He glanced at Skye's hand, which had newly wrapped gauze around it, along with fresh fingerprint-shaped bruises around her wrist.

"He took off most of her palm," explained Raina quietly. "Not very deep, almost like it was shaved, but it wasn’t pretty."

Ward clenched his hands into fists with anger.

"This is your fault you know," hissed Ward. "He was fine until you gave him that serum."

She cocked an eyebrow. "And you didn't want me to save him?" she asked.

"I didn't know it would do this."

"Neither did I. But I have to admit, I _was_ curious. And now that I can see how it’s affecting him… I find it fascinating."

"Well I'm glad you're amused, but what are we going to do about it?"

" _I'm_ not going to do anything. I still have my resources which without Garrett I may not."

Ward shook his head with exasperation. "Fine. Leave your life in jeopardy, that's your prerogative."

He gave Skye a parting once over and stomped out of the room, ready to help Garrett with the Gravitonium. But Ward definitely wouldn’t be focused on this mission. He had only one clear thought now, knowing it would consume him until he puzzled it out: he needed to figure out the best way to get himself and Skye _out._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you icewitch73 for the comment!


	15. May Observes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May observes the Costa Rican Hydra compound. Coulson gets an unexpected visitor in his cell.

May sat still, her muscles taut and unmoving for hours as she observed. The unvarying stance came fairly easy to her. She trained her patience and physicality every day.

Not that it meant she wasn't antsy on the inside.

It had been two days of surveillance. Their team now consisted of Agents Triplett, Koenig, Wolfe, herself, and a very drawn back Simmons.

Despite that May had expected the scientist to fall apart and possibly try to find retribution in May after taking her away from a dying Fitz, the girl seemed to have channeled her sadness and anger into finding the others. It was something Melinda had told Skye to do once before, after Ward had been discovered to be Hydra. The tenderhearted biochemist had found out the advantages to such techniques all on her own.

But at the moment, there wasn't too much to channel those emotions towards that would be helpful. The BUS remained at the mansion for the whole time May had been there. For some odd reason, the place wasn't heavily guarded and they were able to set a good amount of bugs surrounding the compound, though the gadgets didn't pick up very much. It wasn't until she saw Garrett, Ward and the Centipede men going into the BUS that she finally perked up. Her hope and intrigue, at least. Physically she didn't move a muscle.

For as long as she'd been there, it was the first time she'd seen Ward. She immediately felt a pocket of rage build up in her.

May wasn't really one for blaming herself usually; she always looked at things as though she were a bystander, neutral to the situation, and could decide logically whose fault something was. But in this case, there was no doubt the blame belonged to herself.

She had let herself become compromised. Of course it was never good become sexually involved with the people on your team, but she had been positive she could handle it, as presumably the worst obstacle she’d have to deal with would be getting attached. Turned out it wasn’t feelings that had gotten in the way but the fact that he was working her over, using the sex to keep her from being curious.

It may have been Melinda’s fault but she was aware she was not the only one who held accountability. The whole thing had been Ward’s scheme, but  _she'd_  been the one to leave the door open in that hotel.

It was one of the basic lessons in manipulation: let the other person believe it had been _their_ idea.

No matter the reason, team relations were something May would never attempt again. She'd need to get a rematch with Ward one way or another. Her head still hurt from him pulling one over on her in that Centipede building.

Pulling over _another_ one.

May decided the activity was enough to report back on. She walked over and mounted her horse, which she'd left a short trek away. May had never been particularly adept or fond of riding but it was the most inconspicuous way of travel around here. In this area of Costa Rica, many of the locals didn't have vehicles. The ones who did were clearly well-off or tourists, both of whom attracted attention for spectacle or for attempt to offer service.

Their scant team had set up a small base in the rainforest. Hydra had actually picked a very convenient location; the mansion was near, or more correctly, in the center of a vast amount of jungle. There were definitely locals around as well, but once the team was far enough into the woods not too many dropped by. The ones that did were happy to keep their secret for a little money or goods.

They had been able to find a place to land their jet in a clearing, covering it with mediocre camouflage and keeping a tent for operations just outside. The whole situation was not ideal, but it had been workable.

Until Simmons informed May of the proper attire they should wear to blend in. She wasn't a fan of the Costa-Rican dresses women were meant to don, opting instead for more of the men's clothes. She wouldn’t be any help if they got into a scuffled if she was wearing one of _those_ carpets.

May hated undercover.

She rode back to her team on the cream-colored mare. The old thing couldn't go very fast; it was on its last leg, which was how they'd gotten her so cheaply for each day's rent.

"What's the word?" Triplett asked as she dismounted.

"They're leaving. Soon," May said as Simmons came over to grab the horse’s lead. "And it doesn't looked like they're bringing along Coulson and Skye. We should move in in a few hours."

"Any sign of Director Fury?" asked Koenig.

May shook her head.

He sighed discouragingly, before suddenly perking up. "You know, I bet he got away from the start. He’s probably just pretending to be dead again!"

"That's definitely possible," Wolfe said with a shrug. "Seems like something he'd do. So, have you got a plan, Agent May?"

"Two men on the east side, two covering the west. North and south are unguarded, though there isn't a clear reason why."

"I suppose I am the one who gets to sit this out?" asked Simmons, clearly unhappy with the idea.

"You are the only one without field training," May told her. There was no point in dancing around the issue.

"We need you on comms anyway," said Wolfe, and Simmons sighed.

"If I were field-ready, Koenig would be on comms because I'm not particularly skilled with that either, am I?" she said bitterly, mumbling afterwards, "I'm so bloody useless."

"Hey, resident doctor!" said Triplett cheerily. "You're definitely needed. Plus we need someone to watch after Brisha."

Simmons gave him a dead stare of no expression, one May herself had mastered. Honestly, Melinda thought the scientist would comment on basically being told she was only good enough to help as the stable girl.

Instead, Jemma merely took the horse by the lead rope and stomped over to the side. If it weren't for the importance of the current discussion, May would have guessed she'd have walked away completely. Simmons had been channeling her anger and grief well, but tense situations such as these popped up around her often.

Triplett had been attempting to help, his go-to response usually to try and make the current situation happier and peppier, but at the moment it was hard for anyone to go along with that approach. Near impossible for May at any time.

"Doesn't this seem a little too, I don't know… easy?" Koenig asked. "Obviously there are holes in their security. Completely idiotic, inexcusable, holes."

May shrugged. She knew her observations had been correct, easy or not. "Maybe they're confident no one will find it."

"They should already  _know_ we've found it," pointed out Trip.

"Confident no one threatening will find it," corrected Wolfe, causing Triplett to recoil in offense and Simmons to glance up from her stroking Brisha's mane. "They took out our base, it's not as if what's left is exactly alarming."

"Well we're here," stated Simmons strongly. "And I'll be… I'll be damned if we don't give it our best shot!"

Triplett nodded encouragingly at Jemma with a grin, clearly wanting to say something but he managing to keep it to himself. He was learning.

"I've always wanted to meet Coulson," said Koenig fondly. "Director Fury talked about him all the time, it would be an honor to help get him back! Skye too, of course."

"Any agent is an agent worth saving," said Wolfe warmly.

May suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. She wasn't so much about team building and excitement, but even she had to admit that amongst all the doom and grief they had been going through, a little silver lining and hope wasn’t entirely superfluous.

* * *

Coulson had been here for three days. And in those three days, a nearly impressive amount of nothing had happened to him.

The holding cell they'd put him in was as generic as ever: bed, sink, toilet; nothing worth mentioning. A little redecoration would certainly help its case of blandness.

Guards came to present him with food and water, but that was all they had done. No one would so much as speak a word to him. He had no idea how Skye was faring, and neither Ward nor Garrett made an appearance. Not that he expected them to. That’s what lackeys were for, right?

He wouldn’t go so far as to say it was the worst thing, but also, Coulson felt empty without his suit. They'd given him a white t-shirt and dingy grey sweats to wear. He wasn't really feeling them.

Coulson almost wished he were the punching bag for Skye again; at least that way he would know what was going on. And maybe he wouldn't be so bored. But the pain in eye had him second-guessing the thought.

The immense uneventful stay he’d been experiencing explained why he was rather happy to see someone that he despised walk through the door.

"Raina?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

She smiled, her hands held inconspicuously behind her back. "I brought you something."

"Is it a key? Because I sure would like to get out of here. Or at least some cards for Solitaire."

She shook her head, amused with the statement. "No, not exactly."

Her arm swung around to reveal a syringe and a vial of dark liquid in the palm of her hand.

"Ok… well you see, I'd rather not have strange drugs in my system if I can help it. I had a kind of marring experience with that.”

"It isn't for you," she said, taking a few steps towards him. "It's for Garrett."

Coulson eyed her skeptically. "And you're giving it to me?” he asked in disbelief, no absence of scrutiny in his tone. “What does it do?"

Raina pressed her lips together worriedly. "Let's just say that his and my interests are no longer aligned."

"There a reason for that?" asked Coulson.

"He's been off lately."

"You don't need to tell me that. And by lately I take it you may mean forever?"

"Maybe from your perspective, but I meant since I administered the drug to him. It was fine when he was just obsessive and writing strange equations, in fact that actually intrigued me. But lately he's been acting unpredictably and aggressive."

 _Aggressive_. Coulson didn’t like the sound of that. "What did he do?"

Raina shyly studied the vial in her hand, fiddling with it. "Just an incident in the lab. He was trying to hurt someone unprovoked."

"Skye," Coulson stated. Raina’s head shot up as she gawked with surprise. "Is she alright?"

"She's fine. It was just a flesh wound, but it showed that the GH formula has made him unstable."

"So what does that do?" Coulson motioned to the vial in her hand.

"It breaks down the enzymes in the drug, causing it to dissipate in the body. Garrett needed that drug in order to survive.."

"It's going to kill him," Coulson clarified.

"It will. And to be honest Agent Coulson, I don't think of myself as a murderer. Not directly, anyway."

"But you think I am?"

"You're an agent. You'll do what needs to be done for the good of everyone, and I've just given you a way to do it." Raina brought his hands into her own, pressing the syringe and vial into them.

Coulson eyed the new objects skeptically. "Even if your  _morals_ won't allow you to do this, I'm probably not the best bet either," Phil said, motioning around himself. "Have you noticed my current situation?"

"Trust me, an opportunity will be presenting itself very soon."

"I'm guessing you're not going to elaborate on that?"

She smiled, clearly smug at knowing more than him. "Just wait, Agent Coulson. You'll understand soon enough."

Raina turned towards the door, leaving Coulson standing there with the unidentified serum.

"Have you always had this antidote to the drug in Garrett?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him. "Were you always planning to use it?"

She glanced back to regard him, the calmness that constantly accompanied her presence still etched on her face.

"No, I haven't had it. I just recently came into possession of a substance that works as a neutralizer against most elements, it would seem. The GH.325 is just something else it can break down."

All right, he'd bite. "And what substance did you find?"

She peered at him with that same smug expression, though the smile was absent from her face.

"Skye's blood."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Patricia and SlightlyTwistedSilverware for the continued support! I know, poor Skye :( Thank you ajanji14! Yes... Fitz's fate will be a topic soon ;)
> 
> Sorry about the slightly tedious chapter. The next few are fairly action based, and then we hop right into the sequel with angst angst angst! And plot. And action! Then another sequel. Then perhaps another (not sure how I'm going to break it up). Guys this story is long, and honestly I think it gets better. Rereading this first part is like listening to nails on a chalkboard, I've had to fix up the writing SO MUCH. (I wrote this part in between the hiatus of S1 and S2.)


	16. The Team Goes in for the Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The remaining team infiltrate the Costa Rican compound in search of the prisoners.

The horse and local outfits stayed behind at the camp with Simmons; they couldn't afford to wear the loose clothing and the horse would only benefit one of them. All the field agents felt the person who’d benefit most from the equine would be Simmons, should any of the others be compromised.

May crept up the hill she’d accustomed to frequenting the past few days, Koenig now at her side. He was chubby and hadn't frequently been in the field, but she trusted him to be a fair ally. Still, May was the most experienced out of their ragtag group with combat and therefore the best choice to be put with their weakest link.

Wolfe wasn't too far behind Koenig as far as out of practice went, but he'd obviously kept up some physical strength. May could tell his exercise regimen wasn't too different from being a field agent to now that he’d transferred to administrations. It reminded her of herself in a way, but he'd lasted much longer at the desk job.

"Is everyone, uh, at their proper places?" asked Jemma hesitantly.

"We're at the east entry," May said into her comm.

"Triplett and Wolfe at the west," Trip's voice rang into all their ears as low as possible. He knew May and Koenig to be a little farther away as they’d had less tree cover coming down. Antoine and Wolfe had gotten real close, just a few feet away from the entrance but concealed easily by some greenery.

"Oh, well done," said Simmons as though shocked at the information. "We're off to a good start I suppose, then." Jemma was certainly not confident with this job.

May suppressed an eye roll at the scientist. This girl was currently their sole communication lifeline and somehow, that wasn't too comforting.

Triplett observed two guards flanking the mansion doors on his side. Both were wearing costly appearing suits and sunglasses. He quickly surmised that they’d been standing out in the heat all day, as both guards had taken to lounging against the doorway.

"I've got a twenty on two hostiles, right at the doors," said Trip.

"Twenty on two guards over here as well," May agreed. "Moving in in five."

"Please be careful everyone!" Jemma said desperately. The thought of being so close to getting Coulson and Skye back was exciting, but she couldn’t stop her heart from beating in a nervous staccato for the rest of her team.

Once May's count was up, all four agents bounded forward. Triplett was in the lead on his side as Wolfe remained steadily behind, running towards the mansion with guns raised.

Triplett fired the ICER as soon as he revealed his location, Wolfe doing the same. They hit the guards before the clueless men had even had a chance to move or get their guns out.

May and Koenig had a similar experience. Despite having to make a somewhat arduous trek down the hill and Koenig having a little trouble with his aim, May managed to take out both guards before they’d succeeded to move so much as an inch.

Her partner brought up the rear, sweating profusely and definitely nervous. But nervous was good. Nervous kept you alert and alive.

Triplett eliminated the remaining outdoor guards as smoothly as the others. He didn’t have a clue what was awaiting them inside, but there was only one way to find out. "I'm going in," he said.

"Got your six!" said Wolfe, shadowing him.

"Hang on guys, something's a little weird out here," muttered Koenig.

May was about to follow Trip's lead and enter from her side, but Koenig was inspecting the passed out guards. She grew impatient quickly as time was of the essence on this mission, until an eerie sense swept over her and she realized Koenig might have been onto something.

"Look at this," he said, beckoning May closer to one of the two guards. "They haven't moved an inch from when we shot them."

May whipped off the guard's sunglasses. "Eyes are open. Our ICERs would have forced them shut."

"You don't think they could have been unconscious before we shot them, do you?" asked Koenig.

"I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened," Triplett's voice came into their ears.

"How do you know? What's going on?" asked Simmons frantically, aware that is most likely wasn’t the best idea to be distracting her teammates on a current mission. She was just so bloody curious!

"Because there ain't one person awake in this entire place!" Trip exclaimed.

Koenig looked to May for some sort of reassurance at the information, but she was already starting to trudge into the mansion.

Bursting through the doors, May scanned her surroundings in under a second. Four people in the room, two guards, one man, one woman. All unconscious. But since they weren't a current threat, her main priority was to find wherever her teammates were being kept.

The whole situation reminded Agent May of the team’s tragic mission in Italy. It was an estate owned by Quinn and, not that she was big on décor, she noticed this place had a similar vibe to the last mansion. She could only hope it wouldn't continue in similarities, because the last thing she wanted was to find one of the agents bleeding to death from a gunshot wound again.

But there was still at least one more similarity.

Ian Quinn.

He was on the floor next to an equally unconscious blonde, suit more crumpled than she’d ever seen as he lie sprawled in place. May took a moment to quietly plan getting in a few more punches at this man than she had the last time she’d seen him.

"Quinn is in the building," May said into the comms as she began to stride towards him, gun pointed downward as she went.

Triplett walked in with Wolfe hot on his heels, watching intently as May knelt down to examine Quinn.

"Got something to wake his sorry ass up with?" he asked.

"Yes," May answered shortly, pulling out the smelling salts.

"I'll leave you to it then," said Trip. "Wolfe and I will take a look around for everyone. I'll scope upstairs?"

"I've got this floor," said Wolfe with an affirming nod.

With the two agents leaving to begin their search, Quinn’s eyelids fluttered open harshly as he hacked and coughed in reaction to the salts. When he finally gained some composure, he whipped his head around wildly with confusion until ultimately landing his frantic gaze on May.

"Miss me?" she said flatly, cocking an eyebrow. She hoped he had a long enough memory to recall their last encounter.

"What… what the hell is going on?" he sputtered.

"I don't know. But you better have some answers to my questions or you're going to have a hell of a headache."

Quinn's eyes widened with fear.

"Haha, nice one," remarked Koenig, who got a glare from May in return. He cleared his throat nervously. "What happened in here?" Billy asked. May noted a distinctly lowered tone; perhaps he was trying to sound menacing.

"I don't know! Seriously, like, I really don't. One second I'm having a nice time with Britney over here and next thing I know, gas fills up the place!" he exclaimed frantically, waving his arms in ridiculous gestures.

May just stared, waiting for some useful information. Koenig looked unsure of what to ask.

"I don't even know why I am still with Hydra," Quinn said as he pulled himself up to a sitting position. "Definitely not worth it anymore with all these problems and delays popping up. Then _you_ people show up again!” he said, shaking his head in disarray. “Way too much hassle. And they’re not even working on my Gravitonium like they’re supposed to be! Instead they’re all tied up studying that girl."

May's attention piqued. "Where is she?"

"She's with everything else: downstairs in the lab," Quinn informed. He waved his hand dismissively before laying them with what seemed to be annoyance on his bent knees. As though this were a casual encounter.

To May, this was anything but. Not only a mission, but people she cared about were in danger.

"Show me," she ordered, pointing her gun. Quinn raised his hands.

"Hey, no need for that, I'll help you. I'm done with Hydra after this, they're nothing but trouble." He got up and started to lead her towards a bookcase.

"Glad you're finally learning," May remarked. "I’m beginning to notice you can be pretty slow with that.”

She heard Koenig snicker as he followed behind.

Quinn didn’t react, instead waving his hand at the bookcase and causing an unknown card-swipe pad to show up. May showed him her personal favorite look, which conveyed a clear question: _“Really?”_

"Hey, I didn't build the place I just bought it,” he protested. “This just happened to already be installed, cliché as it may be."

"I think it's pretty cool," mumbled Koenig. May shot him another brief look as a reminder to keep up professionalism, just before thinking she might actually have to use words instead of just her usual glares on this guy.

The bookcase glided easily to the side as the door behind it swung open. Quinn stepped aside with a grand sweeping gesture.

"After you," he said with a grin.

"You first," May growled.

He sighed. "Don't know why I wasn't expecting that."

They walked down a flight of concrete stairs before the area opened into what appeared to be a vast lab; including an area full of exercise equipment May herself was familiar with to machines she hadn’t an idea of their purpose. But that wasn’t the only thing cursory observation of this place told her.

No one was down there.

May pointed the gun at Quinn. "Where are they keeping the prisoners?"

"Uh let's see…” he said, truly appearing thoughtful as he scrambled for an answer. “Well, they move the girl around for testing but she's usually around here. To be honest I don't know where they keep your Coulson guy."

"Is Director Fury here?" asked Koenig.

"Who now?"

" _Nick Fury_ ," Koenig huffed, sounding agitated. "Older black man with no left eye?"

Quinn shook his head. "Definitely never seen someone like that. That’s a pretty zany description you’ve got there…”

Footsteps coming from behind the trio caused them turn around at once to see Triplett and Wolfe jogging down the steps in their direction.

"Upstairs is clear; no sign of Coulson, Fury or Skye. Everyone we’ve encountered has been unconscious," said Trip. "Gotta admit though, this is some pretty nice digs."

Quinn smiled. "Thank you."

"We'll have to look down here then," said May as she began to stride away. Without bothering to turn back, she added: "Koenig, keep an eye on Quinn."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm going to check down this hallway," said Wolfe, just before jogging down a dimly lit corridor with a good amount of doors lining it.

Back in the muggy camp in the middle of a Costa Rican jungle, Jemma was trying to fight off her anxiety, along with a good amount of mosquitos.

"What's going on, Triplett?" she asked, curiosity finally getting the better of her. Plus it was probably good for the comms person to know precisely what was happening… right?

"We're in some kind of lab, but it looks pretty wrecked. Like someone took off in a hurry."

"Can you take a scan of it with your phone and send it to me?"

"Sure."

A few moments later, Simmons received several images of the torn apart lab, analyzing them immediately and as thoroughly as possible.

"This is definitely from working with Skye," Simmons stated after briefly studying the pictures.

"Seriously?" Triplett said with an impressed tone. "You can tell exactly who they’re working on from all that crap?"

"Well, they left test results lying about and even though we aren't to the full extent of our usual potential as far as tech goes, we're still able to zoom and analyze pretty thoroughly with this equipment,” Jemma explained, involuntarily bringing to mind her best friend with the mention of equipment.

She quickly shook her head. Jemma couldn’t afford to dwell on Fitz right now.

She cleared her throat. “Not to mention I know Skye's blood work fairly well. We- er, I took countless diagnostics on it to become more informed about the GH.325. Skye actually _was_ starting to become pestered eventually with the amount I had been taking-"

"Simmons," May's voice came through the comm, reminding her that the whole team could hear hers and Triplett's conversation. "Focus."

"Right, I can look at this after you lot get out. Apologies. Have you found anything, May?"

"You'll know when I do," May said as she used Quinn's key card to open up another door.

To her immense relief, and his, she found Phil Coulson sitting just inside from a small cot

He sighed. "Oh thank god. The boredom could have been counted as torture if you’d been any later.”

May actually, sort of, very thinly, smiled.

"I got Coulson," she said into the comm, hearing a rejoiced comment from Simmons as soon as she did. May couldn't really blame the scientist, as on the inside she was feeling exactly the same thing. Despite usual feelings, she even had a great urge to hug him. She opted to stand still anyhow. "You don't seem surprised to see me."

"They missed two meals today. I figured my team was here or Garrett just decided to let me starve. Both plausible options, though I really prefer the first."

Coulson started getting up off the bed, moving his arm in a small incorrect way, causing the man to grunt in pain. He thought he'd had that under control but, guess not.

May quickly walked over to help him, concern coating her face. Well, as concerned as May got. "You're hurt."

"I'm fine; they did this a few days ago," he told her as they walked through the door, Coulson with some difficulty. "Have you found Skye and Fury?"

May shook her head.

Simmons had been so happy to hear that Coulson had been found, along with keeping focused on her duties to help the rest of the team, she didn't notice the noises of someone coming closer to her camp.

It was only when Brisha the horse, who had been silently grazing the entire time as she was tied to a tree, whinnied nervously that Simmons noticed a change.

"Hush, Brisha!" Jemma scolded.

Her hoof began scrapping the ground.

"Something wrong, Simmons?" Triplett asked.

"No, it's just that the horse has started- wait.” She stood with perked ears. “I think I hear something."

Simmons turned towards the quiet rustling in the jungle she could have sworn she'd heard just a moment before.

"Simmons?" asked May.

"It's fine, I don't see anyone. There are a plethora of animals in this jungle anyway, most shouldn't attack unprovoked."

"Place is clear," Wolfe said through the comm. "No sign of Fury or Skye."

Jemma couldn't even process the meaning behind the statement as she heard something that distinctly sounded like footsteps. She frantically fumbled for her gun, holding it in the general direction of where the noise had been, which was very close to the horse.

"Come out! I know you're there!" she shouted into the brush.

"Simmons, what's happening?" asked Trip urgently.

"Someone's here!" she shouted.

May stopped walking abruptly when she heard. "Get out. You have to leave now."

Jemma felt her heart beating wildly in her chest. If only she'd known how to fly the jet. It had an autopilot function but getting it off the ground, especially in a jungle, would not be something a rookie pilot could do. Then there was the issue of landing…

The horse had been her getaway option, not that it would do any good if someone shot at them. Brisha was more in case the rest of her team was compromised. It wasn't her idea, but they'd insisted. Still, she couldn't imagine leaving the animal.

All of this ran through her mind in the few short seconds before she'd heard the newcomer talk.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" said a worried voice with Scottish accented tones, just before he revealed himself from behind the tree with hands held high in surrender.

 _"Fitz?"_  she breathed.

Jemma dropped her gun in disbelief. She literally could not get her mind to wrap around the fact that it was him, standing in front of her, completely healed…

Which made dropping her gun incredibly stupid, as Jemma quickly surmised that it must have been some kind of trick.

But it  _was_  him. It was Leopold Fitz; curly hair, blue eyes, no marks or signs of trauma of any kind.

A smile spread across his rather adorable face. "Jemma," he said with a sigh.

He lowered his hands and strode towards her with more gusto than she could ever remember her friend having, and twisting her hair into his hands, gave her the most passionate kiss she had ever felt in her entire life.

Jemma was far too shocked to so much as move at first, but after moments she returned the liplock. Perhaps unconventionally. Her mind was on autopilot. She couldn’t even comprehend what her own bodily actions were so much as what she was doing there. In a jungle. With the team. Why Fitz was back.

"Simmons, are you alright? What's going on?" she heard Triplett's concerned voice in her ear, reminding her of the present situation as Fitz broke away from her lips. She stared into Fitz’s eyes for a moment before answering, her mind finally deciding to believe what she was seeing.

"A bloody miracle."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww Fitz! A completely healed and rather forward acting Fitz...
> 
> Thanks Patricia for the comments!


	17. Simmons is Relieved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward hears about Garrett's plan while the team plan to take him down.

"Florida?"

"Disney World, if you want to get technical about."

Ward shook his head as if to attempt and clear it. He could  _not_  be hearing this.

"Why in hell are we going there? I thought we were going to Chicago."

Garrett shrugged. "I changed my mind."

"To a theme park?" he barked incredulously.

"The tourists will think we’re some kind of attraction.” He grinned in a way that could be described far to closely to the word ‘evilly’ than Ward’s liking. “Then, we can watch their little faces fall as they realize what's really happening. It'll be funny!"

Ward shook his head again.

Garrett stepped closer gave him a firm pat on the back. "Don't worry, we won't hurt any of the kids or anything. Or, most of them."

"How do you know? You can't control that stuff!"

"Well now, don't insult me. I can control it completely."

"You don't know what it's like," Ward said firmly. "I've seen it in action and it's unstable."

"It was unstable because the person using it couldn't understand it. Ian Quinn isn't exactly a rocket scientist and even if Franklin Hall was, he _wanted_ it to be uncontrollable," Garrett explained, and Ward did agree that at least that much was true. "Plus, I can see into its soul. Hell, I'm probably the only person on earth who can control it!"

Ward didn't want to do this. He was ready to get off this carousel of crazy, but at the moment he couldn't see a clear exit strategy. Getting out of his super-powered SO's favor probably wouldn't go so well, and trying to talk some sense into him obviously wasn't working. Then there were another five guys, also with super powers, who were ready to do anything for this man because someone was watching them and ready to blow up their brain in a second if they didn't. Ward nearly wished he hadn't stopped Skye from getting the Incentive program's "incentives" out.

"You're right, John," Ward finally told him. "Guess we're going to Florida."

"That's the spirit, son! Ever been there?"

Ward scoffed. "My dad wasn't really into vacations. Unless… you count permanent vacations from work."

"Whoa, hey now, don't get all sentimental on me. Still, since I like to think of myself as a somewhat paternal figure to you, it's high time I took you there."

Ward lifted his lips to put on the charade of a smile, the back of his mind churning with ideas of what he could do to make sure Garrett's damage was as minimal as possible.

* * *

 

Jemma had never experienced such an enormous amount of happiness and relief at once before watching Fitz walk up to her in the middle of the jungle.

For a moment she'd thought it was a dream, but the intimate, physical moment that followed soon after seeing him assured her that he was truly there, despite how un-Fitzly that action may have seemed. Obviously his near death experience had molded him somewhat differently.

They agreed to not tell anyone about the kiss, or at least wait to discuss things further until their current situation was a bit more sorted. Despite this, Simmons couldn't help but keep hold of Fitz’s hand ever since their lips broke apart. With such a miraculous recovery, she feared her mind to be playing tricks on her and that he might disappear at any moment.

The only person who could have rivaled Jemma's relief at seeing Fitz was perhaps Coulson, who had apparently been assured that both the engineer and Simmons were dead. Her team leader couldn't contain his enthusiasm and wrapped them both into a long overdue hug.

Simmons wanted to check them both over for injuries, insisting that Fitz at the very least needed to be examined immediately. It was preposterous that he could have been in the condition he had been with absolutely no fall out. But as there were no obvious alarming symptoms, she was convinced to wait until they were in the air with a destination in mind.

The whole team had been interested in why everyone at the compound had been found unconscious and even more curious (with added upset) about where the rest of the kidnapped agents were. But as their team was small, they decided the priority was getting everyone out of there.

"Best to not look a gift horse in the mouth," Simmons said.

"Speaking of horses, we have to return the one in our care," May reminded them, coaxing a pout of Jemma.

Brisha had only been a loan, the cheapest and most inconspicuous way of traveling for a few days. But still, Jemma couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness for the animal she'd bonded with over the past few days.

"Return her?" exclaimed Fitz. "But we've only just met! I've hardly gotten a chance to know her."

Both Simmons and Fitz begun petting the horse longingly, staring at the rest of the team. Jemma had never been particularly fond of Fitz’s idea to get a monkey, though she was much more fond of horses. But even FitzSimmons' duo puppy dog look couldn't make Melinda May waver, as she'd simply told them "no."

"I'm at least feeding her an apple before we give her back," Fitz stated decidedly.

After returning Brisha to her rightful owner they were all back on the jet, deciding where to go and answering some top priority questions.

Fitz had explained that he woke up in the jungle alone and confused in clothes that were foreign to him. Before that, all he could remember was being under the water with Jemma. He'd merely started stumbling through the forest until he'd run into Simmons.

"There was a message taped to the outside of this jacket though," Fitz informed them.

"What did it say?" asked Coulson.

He began rummaging through his green cargo jacket before pulling out a small post it note, handing it to Coulson as Simmons strained to see over his shoulder. Coulson eyed her in a way that clearly meant she was invading his personal space. She backed up a foot or two sheepishly while mouthing the word "sorry."

"It says 'your team needs all the help they can get to take Garrett down with the Gravitonium. It's probably time you got back to them,'" read Coulson.

"I honestly haven't a clue what that means," sighed Fitz.

"I think I do." Coulson put the paper into one pocket while taking something out of another. "Raina gave me this."

"What is it?" Simmons asked, hastily getting up close and personal to observe the object.

Coulson shrugged. "Raina said it was to neutralize Garrett, made of Skye's blood. I don't know if that's true or not…"

"That would make sense with the note," commented Wolfe. "So if this Raina lady is the one who wrote the note, she's telling us to go after Garrett? Why would she want that?"

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" asked Fitz, a little snappily.

Wolfe recoiled, taken aback. "Agent Wolfe."

"And where exactly did you come from,  _Agent Wolfe_?"

"Well, Jacksonville originally. But more recently I came from administrations,” he answered lightly. “What's with the interrogation, kid?"

Simmons stepped forward. "Fitz, it's ok, he's been with us the entire time. He went in to get Coulson with them."

"Yeah, and Ward jumped out of plane to save you, Jemma!" he shouted at her, causing her to flinch away. She completely understood how he would be, _should_ be, bitter about the situation, but it was hard to have him yelling at her.

Coulson laid a hand on his shoulder, the man already putting himself back into his rightful place as team leader. "Maybe you should take a seat, Agent Fitz."

Leo shrugged him off. "No, I'm fine."

"Alright, but no more questioning Agent Wolfe. I've worked with him before and know him to be a capable agent."

"Thank you, sir," Wolfe said proudly.

Fitz scoffed, though he did actually go to sit down on one of the chairs. Simmons could hear him mumbling something similar to "Ward was a capable agent too," but she elected to ignore the comment.

"So we find Garrett and kick his ass," said Trip decidedly.

"Anyone got an idea about where he is?" asked Coulson.

"Actually, we do!" Koenig told him with a good amount of enthusiasm. "We think Skye gave us a trace of the BUS and we lost it for a while, but it mysteriously popped back up again just as they left the Costa Rican base. Really convenient happenstance."

"That doesn't sound like happenstance,” Simmons mused. “Perhaps Raina is really trying to help us with getting rid of Garrett.” She gasped with realization. "Maybe Raina was the one to give us the trace in the first place!"

"No," Coulson stated heavily, "That was Skye. She made a risky move in doing it and she didn't even get to benefit from it."

"Well, she can benefit from it now," said Wolfe firmly as he looked at Coulson. "We're going to get your girl back, I promise you."

Coulson smiled, nodding back at him.

"We do have a slight problem," Jemma pointed out. "How on earth are we going to combat the Gravitonium? Last time we faced it we had to throw a living person into the element to stabilize it!"

Fitz slowly rose from his seat, tentatively raising a hand. "I may have an idea. I was researching it quite a lot sometime after our encounter with it."

"You were?" asked Simmons. She wracked her brain, but honestly, she didn't remember that at all. And they shared everything. It was hard for her to imagine there was any subject of work Fitz had been looking into she wouldn't so much as know about.

"Yeah,” Fitz affirmed. “And I think I've got a pretty good idea of what to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Patricia! Yeah, Skye disappearing can not be good...


	18. Everyone Visits Orlando - Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team head to take down Garrett who is attacking in Disney World.

 

_Happiest place on earth my ass._

These were Ward's immediate thoughts upon entering the obnoxious park. It wasn't just because there were ridiculous creatures walking around or that all the buildings were overly colorful –which was completely true-, but no. It was the children. A good amount of the brats weren't happy. Their parents brought them to this admittedly tacky, but commercialized and sought after, park for a great deal of money, probably saved up over years, and what did they get for thanks from the critters? Tantrums. It was disgusting.

Ward wasn't a big fan of kids.

That didn't mean he wanted to hurt them, it just meant he never really wanted any of the tiny gremlins running around for him to take care of.

The funny thing about this "mission" was that they’d actually paid to get inside the park. This one was Epcot; its primary draw-in being something called World Showcase. The replicas were somewhat impressive to see and the only part of Disney World that Grant had liked so far. Despite not having the old historic value, Epcot boasted having a building from a variety of different countries that looked very close to something that would actually reside in it’s place of origin. There was a fair sized body of water that buildings resided around, which was where Garrett wanted the main event to be.

When the crowd's attention started being attracted to the lake, Ward knew his SO's plan was starting.

A globe was rotating into the center of the pond. He could hear voices of parents telling their children to look that way. Some people must have been repeat visitors because he also heard comments such as "they must be starting the show early" or "I've never seen that grey shiny stuff in the middle of the globe before."

"Show time," Garrett whispered as he flashed a toothy smile at Ward.

He put on some kind of metal glove; it was a bronze color so that it almost looked brass.

"What's that, sir?" Ward asked. He'd drop the protocol name in private, but whenever he was in the field John instantly became his superior.

"This? Ah, Raina and I whipped this up over the last couple days."

"She wasn't working with Skye?" Ward asked.

"Jesus Christ, you and that girl!" said Garrett with exasperation. "Kid had to be asleep for the tests so Flowers had some of the others work on her, while _we_  worked on this."

Ward didn't have a chance to ask any more about the interesting and slightly worrisome object before Garrett hopped onto a raised surface just near the water, perhaps normally used for smaller stage acts.

"Helloooo everyone! And how are we doing today in the most magical place on earth?" he exclaimed, then quietly whispered to Ward for his own added amusement, "Other than Tahiti, of course."

The small crowd yelled and yipped in excitement. Just a few people walking by had managed to make up a decent group, but it was growing with each passing moment.

"Good, good. Hey, I've got an idea! Let's test how smart you kids are," Garrett shouted to the group, eliciting a few shouts of excitement from the children. "Have any of you heard of the periodic table of elements?"

A few older children's hands shot up.

"Great! Well, I'm here to tell you that we've found a new element. It's called Gravitonium." Garrett moved his fingers quickly in a magical motion as he said the last word, causing the children to "oooh" and "aaaah." He pointed to the globe, rotating on the water.

"Take a gander at the center of the world over there. _That's_ what the new element looks like! As you can see, there's quite a lot of it." The crowd nodded in agreement. "I've actually got a little right here!"

Garrett pulled the silver substance out of his pocket in a vile, maybe enough to just amount to the size of Tic Tac. The small audience let out another round of "ahhh"s.

Garrett shook it out of the vile and onto his glove. "And  _this_  is what is does."

John lifted up his gloved hand quickly in front of him, causing the ground to shake and eventually split. A circle with a ten-foot radius shot up out of the earth, majority of the gathered crowd still on it. The ones who hadn’t been began to scream before the actual sense of danger caught up with them and they started to run.

But Garrett didn't let them get away. Just with the twitch of his fingers he was able to create potholes and lift small parts of the earth. Some people were able to get around, but most were tripped or lifted by it.

"I'm really starting to feel the _magic_ Ward, how about you?" Garrett nearly snarled in amusement.

Ward had never been a fan of Mickey Mouse. It was from a very young age he had this opinion. His brother had always loved the movie Fantasia, though only the part where Mickey was a sorcerer.

But Ward didn't like it. He didn't like it because Mickey had taken on something he couldn't handle and it got out of control. Ward had always been afraid of losing control. A concern that had been present more often than not since the Berserker incident.

Grant  _could_  feel the magic because right then, Garrett was wielding the Gravitonium as though he were a mad magician. Ward was quite sure Garrett was losing control of everything, of his mind, and he just didn't care.

The thought scared Grant more then than it had when he was a child.

* * *

 

"I think this is the most ridiculous thing we've ever done," said May.

"Well, we haven't dealt with  _that_ many ridiculous things otherwise, have we?" asked Coulson from the driver’s seat.

May looked at him in disbelief. "You're kidding."

"What about the ice machine that could literally create storms out of thin air, built by an 18 year old?" asked Fitz from the backseat.

"Or the person who could spontaneously create fire?" said Simmons.

"And Skye once used a blow-up raft to stop us from being sucked out of the plane."

"We've met two gods!" shouted Simmons.

"Well, technically I've met four," said Coulson pointedly. "But ok, I'll give you that. We've encountered some pretty ridiculous stuff. I do agree with Agent May, though: this is the most ridiculous."

"Yeah, mini-van's not really my style either, Coulson," Triplett put in as he tried to stretch his legs from the back seat.

"Oh, I think it's rather fitting!" said Simmons.

"Remind me not to hang out with you folks for too long," said Wolfe. "I think you all need to get your sense of strange re-evaluated if the car is the part of this experience wigging you out. And Coulson, you're a bad influence on these kids."

"What, why?"

"Having a mini-van is nothing to be ashamed of. What if next time the only thing available is a Volkswagen Beetle and they think it's not 'cool' enough to save the world in?"

"Oh, I am a  _big_ fan of those cars," said Koenig.

"Me too!" squealed Simmons.

May let out an exasperated breath with a roll of the eyes. In the back of her mind she could hear Simmons protesting that they weren't children, just before Triplett said if they weren't than Fitz should probably stop using his finger to draw in the condensation of the window. The only reason the conversation was nearly white noise to her was because of the scene that was unfolding directly before her.

They'd gotten to Epcot's parking lot only to discover hundreds of people running to their cars as giant objects were being flung up into the air behind them. They looked like pieces of exhibits. May slammed on the brakes as they all stared.

"Oh no," breathed Simmons.

"That's coming from the World Showcase!" shouted Fitz.

"How do you know that?" asked Wolfe skeptically.

"Because the trajectory makes sense based on the placement of the white globe used in Epcot's future exhibit, so if you were to… well, I just really love Disney, ok?" Fitz shouted, his voice cracking with probable embarrassment.

"Alright, we've got to get moving right now," Coulson said as they all started to head out of the car.

"Wait!" shrieked Simmons. "Turn around May, I know where we can go."

"Simmons?" asked Trip.

"There's an entrance to the park in Germany."

"I didn't know they had a Disney World in Germany," said Koenig curiously.

"No, not the actual country Germany, the World Showcase Germany! Honestly, why would I- oh never mind. Just turn around, I can tell you where to go!"

"How the hell do you people know this stuff?" asked Triplett.

"We just really love Disney!" FitzSimmons shouted simultaneously.

Wolfe couldn't hold back his laughter, holding his stomach from the force of it. "This is the best family vacation I've ever taken."

* * *

 

Majority of the people had vamoosed out of the park the moment they’d caught on to what was happening, but Garrett was making sure to hold on to the few that were left. He was trying to draw out the government's big guns just so he could show them he had the bigger ones.

There wasn't much for Ward to do, except stop the random straggler from escaping. Meanwhile, Garrett just threw parts of the buildings around for the apparent fun of it. They were right in front of the park's China, or what had been China, and he had already taken out Mexico's temple and chunks of Norway's buildings.

Ward's comm suddenly activated. "Sir, we've got a bogie,” said one of the Centipede soldiers.

"Finally!" shouted Garrett. "Who we got? The army, the navy?"

He hesitated. "Coulson's team, sir."

"Aw, they're trying so hard," said Garrett. "But what good are they really without their plucky little leader?"

"I'm guessing they'd be nothing short of amazing, but today's not the day they find out."

Coulson, flanked by May and Triplett, appeared out of the crowd, shooting the guns in their hands with zero hesitation.

Ward didn't have a moment to retaliate, diving to the nearest cover and putting his hands over his head. Garrett just sort of shielded himself with his arm, which caused the few gravitational disruptions he had going on to fall. About half the crowd was able to slip away.

"Thanks for the heads up boys, it was real useful," Ward heard him murmur spitefully into the comm, before turning back to Coulson. "Phil! Not that I'm not pleased as a peach to see you, but how the hell did you get out without me hearing about it?"

Coulson shrugged. "My team is just that good I guess."

As Ward was watching the two seasoned agents' exchange, movement caught the corner of his vision. Grant then saw one more person dressed in operation clothes, creeping closer to Garrett from behind. His SO was too distracted by chatting with Coulson to notice.

"Sir!" shouted Ward.

Garrett immediately turned around with reflexes that reminded Ward of a jungle cat, catching the agent's hand in his palm as he attempted to inject John with some sort of red serum.

"Agent Wolfe," said Garrett, holding the man's arm tightly as he pried the serum out of it. "Joined Coulson's dream team, I see."

"Yeah, I don't really think Hydra was for me. Not enough in the way of benefits."

"Hah! Well you would have had the benefit of staying alive, but I guess it's your choice."

Garrett abruptly flung the agent's body, with great force, into the harbor. His head banged on the walls and crevices as he went down, floating on the surface before slowly and ominously beginning to sink.

"Wolfe!" shouted Triplett, rushing towards the water to aid the man. The ground shook and rose up before him, effectively stopping him in his tracks.

Garrett looked over the serum curiously. "This is supposed to take me down? It's not even in a proper distribution unit. Pathetic." He casually flipped the weapon into the harbor.

Triplett felt furiously frustrated, pacing to try and get around the barrier and to the drowning agent, but more rocks just kept popping up.

"How many people gotta die, man?" he screamed at Garrett. "Seriously! How much power do you  _need?"_

"Enough that pests like you will stop making fools of yourself, and just accept the inevitable!"

Garrett began to raise up the gloved hand towards Trip, but stopped when a comm rang through their ears.

"Sir, two of the agents from Coulson's team are setting up some kind of perimeter around the lake and making their way to us with a device. Would you like us to leave the Gravitonium to take them out?"

"No," sneered Garrett, as he turned to Ward. "Seems like Coulson's got himself a new science duo. Want to prove to me you can finish what you start? Take them _out_."

Hesitantly, but hopefully not noticeable enough to catch Garrett’s eye, Ward nodded. He got up to make his way towards the lake.

"Like hell you will," May growled, raising her gun and firing as many shots as possible as soon as Ward had risen from his cover.

But with the wave of his hand, Garrett was able to brush the bullets to the side like they were nothing, allowing Ward to start moving.

May could not let Ward get anywhere near FitzSimmons again. She charged at the former agent, putting as much power as she could into the sprint. Soon enough her feet stopped touching the ground completely and she found herself nearly bicycling in the air as the gravity around her lessened.

The same thing was happening to Coulson and Triplett as they dangled helplessly like fish on hooks.

Once they’d ascended about ten feet into the air, force came back into play and they tunneled into the ground. May shouted in pain; it felt as though her knee cracked. The sounds Trip and Coulson were making made it clear they weren't faring much better.

Garrett smirked. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Patricia!
> 
> Why Disney World? Because I figured, Disney owns ABC, maybe it will show up in the show one day... though probably not xD


	19. Everyone Visits Orlando - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team have to finish off Garrett before it's too late.

_Previously: The team go to Disney World to take down Garrett, who's unfortunately found a way to control the Gravitonium and is controlling Coulson and Co. like puppets on strings. It's up to Fitz’s invention to combat the element but Ward has been ordered to take down FitzSimmons, again! Agent Wolfe was thrown into the water along with the serum to take down Garrett, and it doesn't look like the agent will be resurfacing any time soon. Can the rest of the team make it out?_

**Chapter Nineteen**

"Simmons, you have to get the electro-magnetic converter into the ground before you start putting on the electrodes!" exclaimed Fitz desperately, glancing around to see if anyone was coming.

"I know that, Fitz! But quite honestly, it's a little difficult to get it to stick when the ground is bloody concrete. I have to find some sort of weak point since they're not very sharp or particularly blunt for force," she shouted, while trying to push and screw the device into the ground.

"Well, excuse me if I didn't make a good enough make-shift Gravitonium neutralizer out of materials in a  _third world country_."

"I'm not blaming you, I'm just asking you not to rush me."

"There's a madman attacking the beloved Disney World with a large amount of an element that happens to control gravity. Sorry, but I do think we need to rush just a bit-"

"Done! Ok, put on the panels," she said, adding when he didn't go fast enough: "Hurry!"

"On it, on it!"

Fitz frantically attached the final component to the converter, the whole process taking no more than thirty seconds, before standing up and brushing off his hands with one another.

"Well good," he stated. "There's just one left now."

"Yes, but look." Simmons pointed to the Gravitonium store in the center of the hollow globe, which was meant to be where they were to put the last of Gravitonium neutralizers. It also happened to be surrounded by Centipede soldiers.

"Oooh yeah, that's not very good. How are we going to get passed them?"

"I'm not sure…" Jemma replied with a shake of her head.

"FitzSimmons!"

"Whoa!" she shouted, turning to face the man she’d hoped to never see again with her ICER automatically raised. Simmons didn't think she could ever actually kill someone, but she would definitely defend herself. Especially against Ward.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said gently, approaching them with raised hands in offer of surrender.

"That's far enough!" Simmons shouted, her voice quivering but she managing to sound fierce enough that Ward stopped in his tracks.

"Look, I dropped my guns back there so I wouldn't have to reach into my holster to surrender them."

Sure enough, when FitzSimmons peered behind Ward there were two pistols as well as their ammunition in a pile on the ground.

"I want to help," pleaded Ward sternly.

Fitz stepped up next to Jemma, who was still holding out her gun. "Yeah, and why would you want to help us? You dropped us in the bloody ocean!"

"The unit was supposed to float! I'm sure you two geniuses, of all people, already know that. It was the best I could think of when Garrett gave me the kill order, without completely betraying him."

Simmons' eyes narrowed with suspicion. "So after such lengths to stay on his good side, we're just supposed to expect you'd betray him now?"

Ward huffed in frustration. He knew this was going to be difficult, convincing whoever was here that he sincerely wanted to help. But he honestly had nor expected to see Fitz. He supposed it made sense that they had got him out however they’d rescued Coulson, but it had seemed like the guy was never going to get up again, let alone the next day.

"Skye was in danger," Grant said finally.

"Of course she's in danger, she's with you!" shouted Fitz.

"Where is she?" asked Simmons, her tone of someone not to mess with.

Ward's face tilted with confusion. "She was in the lab with Coulson and Fitz… I assumed you had her with you now."

Simmons' arms shook with anger. "You're such a liar, Ward! You're just trying to play us again."

"No, I-"

"Just shut up!" shrieked Fitz, pointing an accusatory finger. "You don't get to talk."

Simmons bit her lip nervously. "If you're really giving yourself up, you'd let us tie you up and… take you in."

Fitz nodded. "Exactly."

"Listen to me." Ward's voice was harsh, and though FitzSimmons weren't too keen on giving him the benefit of their attention, they stayed quiet. "I have a way to cut off comms from the Centipede men with my phone. Without Garrett, they'll listen to me and move away from the Gravitonium. But you have to let me go over there."

"Like hell we will!" shouted Fitz. "I trusted you once before, believed in you for far longer than I should have and all it got me was a ninety foot drop into the ocean."

Ward wanted to point out, again, that he’d thought the stupid thing would  _float_ , and that Fitz was obviously fine now, but he honestly wasn't sure exactly how fine he was.

His face softened. "You know you guys don't have a choice. Why would I come surrender to you anyway if I had bad intentions?"

"To trick us!" insisted Simmons. "To capture us!"

Ward tried not to smile. "No offense, Simmons, but you and Fitz aren't exactly a big threat on your own. If Hydra wanted you I could have just taken you."

FitzSimmons shared a look, silently communicating in that way they have. Whatever they decided would determine all of their fate. Because of Ward's fresh betrayal, either they'd let him help them defeat Garrett, or they would all die.

 

* * *

 

Coulson couldn't take it much longer. If he didn't feel like he was floating, only to come back to the earth with a startling amount of force, he felt like he was being ironed into the ground by the sheer amount of pressure exerted onto him.

Every chance he was able to he tried to look around himself, just to be sure that his teammates weren't dead.

So far, so good. Or at least, so far no death. Good was probably too strong of a word.

Garrett mainly kept May hanging in one place. She just dangled, clawing at nothing, as she was frustrated to be unable to come to anyone else's aid.

Triplett was, on the contrary, being thrown around in the air quite a lot. He never hit the ground, which was something Coulson was thankful for. Because based on current experience, it was not pleasant.

"I could do this all day!" Garrett shouted gleefully, moving his hand lazily back and forth so Triplett would be bounced in the air. "But I think the crowd is getting a little sick of the tricks. How about we bring this show to a close…"

And suddenly, all three of them slammed from their respective places into the harsh concrete. It was impossible for them to move, to think. The pressure was too great.

Coulson's eyes managed to lift his eyes up to the sky for one final look at the world, when there was a bright flash of light. It blinded him, as though his vision were whited out for a moment. As though he just witnessed a nuclear blast, but if that were the case, he would most decidedly be dead.

Just like that, the horrific pressure was gone.

Shakily, and with a great amount of difficulty, the agents were able to pick themselves up. Coulson stumbled onto his knees but May didn't let him fall completely and he used her as support, despite the burning in her own knee.

The rocks holding up the vacationers slammed down, and the remaining crowd scurried away as fast as they could.

Garrett’s face fell, dumbfounded, staring at his glove and shaking it with all the force he could muster. But nothing was happening.

"What the hell is going on?" he shouted desperately.

"Oh uh, that would have been me!" Fitz called, and Garrett spun around furiously to face him. "I made a Gravitonium neutralizer, feel free to be impressed."

"Why you little-" Garrett fumed, running towards Fitz with blind anger. He didn't seem to question how Fitz could possibly be there for even a moment, he just charged forward.

Simmons revealed her hiding spot as she stepped out from behind a tree to fire her ICER six times into Garrett's chest. The gun only seemed to affect him as much as a fly would bother a horse, but he stopped anyway, his anger seeming to dissipate slightly as he looked at her with amusement.

"Real bullets won't work on me and you decide to use that thing? You people really are pathetic."

Simmons screamed as Garrett leapt onto her, his hand winding rough fingers through her hair to hold her still.

"Jemma!" shrieked Fitz.

"Now it's time to finish what Ward started," he snarled, his hand creeping up to her neck. Simmons slammed her eyes shut.

But the hand never made it all the way up. His grip in her hair became relaxed, dropping the woman so she fell to the ground, able to crawl away the moment she hit.

Garrett was stunned, shaking as he tried to turn around with stiff movements to see exactly who had stuck him in the neck with a syringe.

The man resembled a drowned rat, dripping water from head to toe. Some of the protective gear he'd been wearing had been taken off so he wouldn't be too heavy when he dove in to find the serum. Luckily, it had floated.

"You!" Garrett gasped, clutching his heart as his knees fell to the ground, one by one. "Why?" he growled.

Ward may have been saddened by the question, and he probably was somewhere inside, but in that single inquiry he didn't hear a bitter sting of betrayal or any amount of disappointment; there was only anger. Like someone finally clearing away his clouded judgment he was able to see with an utmost amount of clarity that Garrett never cared about him. He had only ever been a tool to get to what the man ultimately wanted.

"Guess I finally saw big picture," Ward stated, almost poetically he decided, just as Garrett slumped to the ground.

The team stared as they caught up to what they'd finally managed to accomplish. But Coulson knew there was always something left to do, his mind jumping to loose ends.

"Where are the Centipede soldiers?" he asked.

Ward stepped forward. "I told them to head to the park's France, though we shouldn't have to worry about them anymore. It was only under Garrett's orders that their eye bombs were allowed to be activated. We should be able to free the incentive's program people soon."

"’We?’ Excuse me, but when in the hell did you become a part of 'we'?" asked Trip somewhat weakly, still shaken from the pounding they'd taken.

"When did you?" Ward spat back. Triplett raised an arm to throw a punch, ready to start a scuffle. May stopped him.

"We've got more important things to deal with, he's obviously not a primary threat," she stated calmly. Trip backed off.

"That being said," May continued, stepping forward. She was directly in front of Ward when she threw a well-aimed punch right into the traitor's jaw. "That needed to happen."

Ward's head had turned with the punch, making an unavoidable mental note that Calvary did have a fierce right hook. Rubbing his chin, he faced the team again. "Fair enough."

"So we're just letting him come back?" asked Fitz incredulously. "He's been good for all about five minutes!"

"Ward's allegiance and future will be decided later. But for now, we have to focus on finding our people," Coulson said, turning to Ward. "And if you'd care to share information, your review later on would most likely be much lighter. Agent Koenig is already searching the BUS."

Jemma glanceded around. "Where's Agent Wolfe?

Coulson merely shook his head at the mention of the man. Simmons gasped, before her eyes fell downwards. She'd barely gotten to know the agent, but he'd been nothing but kind to everyone.

"I'll tell you everything I know," Ward said when he realized Simmons had nothing more to say, or wasn't capable of it. "I had no allegiance to Hydra. It was all for Garrett, and I… U was wrong."

"You can save the story for later Ward," said May. "Right now, give us facts."

"Fine. Garrett wanted Fury to-" Ward started, but the ground beneath them started to shake greatly.

"Everybody get down!" shouted Triplett, absentmindedly tugging Simmons to the floor. Everyone remaining followed suit, hands covering their heads.

They were able to see where the disturbance was coming from: the Gravitonium was pulsing, getting bigger and smaller to such a point that the brass globe surrounding it shattered.

"What's happening, Fitz?" shouted Coulson over the rumbling of ground.

"I don't know! It should be stable."

Randomly, sides of the gooey-looking grey substance began getting longer than the others, before retreating back inside the element, almost as if something was trying to get out.

Which it was.

Finally, a mass cannoned out of the substance and shot into the air, causing the chaotic rumbling to stop. The SHIELD team tentatively stood, staring up into the sky where it had gone.

It was coming back.

The figure careened toward them going from the speed of an airplane to stopping just a few feet in front of their faces. The felt the wind it gave off cold on their faces.

"Dr. Hall?" Coulson asked in disbelief. The strange figure whipped his head to face the agent.

It was Dr. Hall, there was no doubt about it. He didn't have the glasses and somehow actually seemed to have gained some hair, but it was the scientist. He was also larger… with muscles.

He was also made out of the Gravitonium.

After glaring at Coulson for a few moments, he retreated with just as great of a speed into the sky and out of sight.

The team stared in awe for a few moments.

"I have a feeling we're gonna have to deal with that later," stated Trip.

"Yeah…" agreed Fitz.

"Most definitely," said Jemma."

"Hey, did you guys see that?" Koenig's voice came through the comm.

"Yep," Coulson replied, still somewhat stunned.

"What was that about?" Koenig asked.

"We'll let you know when we see you."  _And figure it out,_  he thought. "Any luck on the BUS?"

"Yes! I found Fury. He's unconscious, and heavy, but I've got him!"

"Skye?" asked Coulson.

"No sir. Checked the whole place, as far as I can tell at least. She's not here."

Coulson's sigh of relief caught in his throat. He was sure if Koenig had found Fury, Skye would have had to be there too. Where else would they be keeping her?

They team collectively turned to Ward.

"Well?" asked Coulson expectantly. "Care to shed some light on the situation?"

Ward shifted uncomfortably, just slightly. "FitzSimmons told me she wasn't in Costa Rica."

"We searched the entire area," Coulson told him.

Ward sighed, hoping that his display of allegiance just now would be enough for them to believe him, but he didn't have high hopes.

"I have no idea where Skye is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot about the epilogue... so there's actually 20 chapters. If you are a Skye fan, stick around! The rest of this story (continued in sequels) is centered around her :)


	20. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three Ohio boys await cargo to be dropped off in the dead of night, and it just may have something to do with a missing Skye.

**Cherry Hill Fairgrounds, Ohio**

"This place is creepy," said a boy.

"You're creepy," his friend, or Ronnie, replied.

"True as that may be, so is this place. Like, how far off the main road are we?"

"Few miles," a third one piped up. He was called Tom.

"At an old creepy fair waiting for a creepy vehicle to drop off something creepy."

“Shut your yap Ricky, or I’ll shut it for ya!” said Ronnie. “You’re bugging me…”

“Sheesh, sorry. Just making observations…”

It was dark. This made sense though, as it was 2:00 in the morning.

Mr. Frederickson did not intend to eavesdrop. Surely, he hadn’t. He just meant to lock up the old lighthouse under his care and be on his way.

But the three young men had caught his eye. He’d seen them on his way in to shut the stone tower up for the night and then they’d shown up here. Mr. Frederickson knew there had been a party in town for the youngins’ tonight, and these three boys had clearly been on their way.

Until they had been stopped by an alluring looking woman inside her car.

Frederickson had only caught mere glimpses of the conversation on his walk to the beach, but he knew whatever the agreement had been about, the boys accepted greedily without suspicion.

Now he could not help but be interested as they dutifully waited at the abandoned fairgrounds that used to see so many people come through. What they were waiting for, Frederickson could not be sure. But according to them, it was ‘creepy.’

“Hey, old dude, what are you looking at?” the one named Ronnie suddenly shouted, and Frederickson recoiled in shock.

He put up a friendly hand, opening and closing it in a wave. “Nothing. Just heading home. You boys alright over there?”

“Why don’t you mind your own business!” Tom hollered.

Mr. Frederickson harrumphed. Youths were so rude, lately. And these boys… well, they seemed up to something.

Which was probably why he stayed to see what they what it was. He had a cell phone. He could call 9-1-1.

After what felt like an eternity and a large amount of moaning from the rambunctious teens, headlights made their way to the beach. The kids perks up, clearly curious and hoping it was the mysterious cargo they had to take care of.

But when the SUV pulled up, the man inside didn't have anything to give them. He was dark haired, maybe somewhere in his fifties.

“Hello boys,” he greeted cheerily.

"Oh hey, almost forgot you were coming to help,” said Ronnie.

“Thought you were the stuff,” Rickey added, crossing his arms like a grumpy child.

Ronnie just rolled his eyes. "Jesus, how many people is this cargo going to take to move?"

"Well, it is alive. Maybe it’s feisty.”

“Four of us against one little-“

"Hey boys, look over there," said the newest man.

There were lights coming in from over the water.

The group of four wasn't standing on the beach, but right next to it, as that's where the fair used to take place. Not for a few years though, so it had been quite a while before anyone had used these docks. Not that it seemed to matter… they were certainly being used now.

Mr. Frederickson watched the men make their way over to the dock. An unseen person had left a large crate before disappearing back into the night, giving the boys no time to ask the questions that appeared to be clawing at them.

 _"Finally,”_ said Tom with a sigh.

"Took long enough! Ronnie exclaimed.

"Well, let's open it up,” urged Ricky.

They moved the box to the beach before doing so. Conveniently, a crow bar had been left attached to it. Ronnie ripped open the top of the box with fervor, curiosity fueling the action, and all four of them peered into the crate. Frederickson even managed to stand on piece of one of the ancient and rusty rides to see its contents.

Inside was a small brunette girl, curled up into a ball so that she almost appeared as a sleeping child.

"Whoa, she’s hot!" Ronnie said with a smile as the older man (though nowhere near as old as Mr. Frederickson) just stared, expression unreadable. "This gig just got way better."

"Better? This looks like human trafficking!" said Ricky.

"Where'd they pick her up, the hospital?" asked Tom, referencing the gown she was wearing.

"I don't know but… if we have gotten ourselves into the business of human trafficking, we might as well… you know."

"Aww c'mon Ronnie that's no fun; she's not even conscious!" Ricky protested as Ronnie haphazardly grabbed the girl from the crate, supporting her with an arm wrapped around her chest and underneath her arms to hold her up.

Frederickson couldn’t believe his eyes. This was a kidnapping. And they were going to… to…

“Put that young lady down immediately!” he bellowed, beside himself, emerging from his measly hiding place without a second thought.

“Hey, there you are old guy!” chuckled Ronnie. “I had a hunch you were still around.”

“What do you boys think you’re doing? This isn’t right!” He turned his attention to the oldest man. “And you. You should know better!”

"You know what?” said Ronnie. “If it makes you feel any better, I promise not to touch her." The kid abruptly rearranged the woman in his arms to keep her from slipping. "Well you know, like that."

“It would make me _feel_ better if you let me take her to hospital!” he said, glancing over the girl pityingly. She was not in the best condition and he cringed to think what she’d already been through; her hand wrapped in a bandage. The poor girl appeared to be no older than his youngest granddaughter.

“God, you are obnoxious,” said the boy called Tom as whipped something out from behind his jeans.

_WHAM!_

Frederickson was confused and cold, for a moment. A few moments. In fact, the only thing that had lasted a mere moment was when the bullet had ripped through his chest.

He fell to the ground, his hand shakily trying to cover up the gushing wound. It was… oh god, he was going to die. The moment his hand touched the blood spouting from his chest, the sheer absence of pain he was feeling. Death would be there any moment.

“What the hell was that!” shouted the newest man, his voice dripping in anger.

There was a short pause before Tom answered, his voice stoney and cold. “He was in our way. Would have called the cops.”

Frederickson peered up warily at Ronnie who was in turn inspecting the girl, her face so close to his now. Her mouth was slightly ajar to release her light breathing as she slept with her head hung down; chin nearly touching her chest. Her long, wavy hair was ratty and matted, but he still took a moment to tuck a piece of it gently behind her ear.

"How long do you reckon she'll be out?" asked Ricky.

"How should I know?" said Tom.

The older man stepped up then to observe the girl. Taking a finger and thumb, he opened one of the young woman's eyelids to reveal the brown eye behind it; an eye that was obviously not doing its job of seeing at the moment.

"By the looks of how much she’s been drugged," the man said, his voice even despite having gotten heated over the gunshot, "I think she'll be out for at least a little while."

Ronnie twirled his fingers absentmindedly through the girl's hair. "Guys… what do you say we give little  _Skye_  here a surprise for when she wakes up?"

Frederickson blinked in upset, tears crowding his vision. Not for himself. This surely was not the way he’d intended to go, but he was upward of eighty. No, he feared for that girl who was now in the possession of these… these _monsters._ But he had no way to help her.

So, crying and ignored, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift away.

 

Tragic as it was, solace can be given with the knowledge that Mr. Frederickson did not have to fret long. It was within moments he left this world, his worries remaining behind with his body.

Even as these men were lazily ordered to “dump” the old kind man’s body into the water, the concern should only lie with one person, for the woman in the crate was in a great deal of trouble indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Creepy, sorry. I will post the first chapter of the next story soon! I may take a day or two to arrange it so I don't get ahead of myself. 
> 
> Thank you Missy8409 who commented last chapter and everyone who commented on the story!


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